Uncle Scrooge
by 1234BlueLagoon
Summary: So, Uncle Donald entered the Navy and we're stuck having to stay with an uncle we didn't even know existed until now. I hope this all works out...Episodic, marked as Complete for now but more chapters might be added at a later date.
1. Uncle Donald's Problem

_Hello! This is a story made just for fun. It's an AU based on the comics and both tv series, so there are things that I'm going to pick from any of these sources at will and there are things I might just completely make up. I hope you enjoy it with me! Concrit is always well received!_

CHAPTER ONE

"Louie! Duck!"

I ducked just in time to avoid the out-of-control remote helicopter toy, but the window behind me was not so lucky. Oh man. Huey was going to be in _so_ much trouble.

"All right, who did that?" Uncle Donald burst open the front door, "Which of you boys was flying this thing?"

"Not me!" Dewey and I both shouted as we ran away. We knew from experience that if we didn't run to at least the mailbox, we'd accidentally get caught up in another of Uncle Donald's lectures again.

"How many times have I told you-!" Thankfully, that was all I heard before I was out of earshot. Uncle Donald get yell really loudly, that's for sure, but I am the one who got first place in the annual school picnic race.

Dewey wasn't too far behind me when I stopped to catch my breath.

"Maybe you shouldn't have ducked," he said, "Now we're _all_ not gonna be able to play with our toys for the rest of the day!"

I rolled my eyes. Dewey's ideas could get kinda extreme sometimes. Most likely the lecture was all we were gonna get.

"Do you think we'll have enough money to pay for the window?" Dewey asked.

"If not," I said, "Uncle Donald is just going to board it up like last time."

We both groaned. Our uncle is _really_ bad at handiwork. The last time we broke a window, we had to suffer with it all through winter. Even though Uncle Donald boarded it up, that didn't stop _anything_ from getting inside the house. We had woodland creatures sneaking into our beds for weeks, and there was always a giant snowdrift just under the window. The worst of it was that our uncle didn't even notice there was a problem.

"Gyah!"

Dewey and I both turned around, a little startled. It was the mailman, who had just driven around the corner with our mail in his outstretched hand. He rushed to break his car next to our mailbox where we were standing.

"It's you!" He screamed.

"Yeah, we know." I said.

"Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

"It's Saturday." Dewey said.

"Isn't there a baseball game or something?"

I can't say I blame the mailman for acting weird around us. A few years ago when we were younger, we sometimes got out of hand with our pranks. This guy was once the subject of the much-remembered wish-we-could-forget Firecracker Incident.

"I'll take the mail," I said, even though the mailman flinched just a little I grabbed the mail out of his hand. "Have a nice day!"

"Yeah, um, you too." The mailman said, and he sped off as fast as he could, turning the other corner and disappearing out of sight.

For the record, we did apologize to him back then. I guess we really scared him, though.

"Did I get anything?" Dewey asked.

"Nah, it's mostly junk." I said as I looked it over, "Wait, here's the Junior Woodchuck's magazine!"

"Yes! I'll read it first!" Dewey grabbed it out of my hands, "Hey, what's that?"

"It's for Uncle Donald," I said, looking over the only real piece of mail in the pile, "It looks official. From the government?"

"You'd better give it to him right away," Dewey suggested.

"Right," I said.

The two of us started walking back to the house. Even though our uncle was still lecturing Huey, we both could see right away that Huey had stopped listening a long time ago. He had that look he got whenever he was thinking up something-like a plan or a story.

"Hey Uncle Donald! You've got mail!" I shouted, interrupting our uncle in mid-lecture.

"Louie! What have I told you about interupt-" Donald's eyes went wide as he saw the letter. "It's here! It's here! It's finally here!"

Like the big kid he was, Uncle Donald tore the letter out of my hands and ripped it open as fast as he could.

"Wahh! I made it! I'm in!" He shouted, waving the letter enthusiastically, "Boys, they've accepted me back into the navy! I'm going ta be a sailor again!"

Huey, Dewey and I looked at each other.

"Um, Uncle Donald?" Huey asked, "It's nice that you'll have a job again, but if you're gone, who's going to watch over us?"

Our uncle stopped his dance in mid-air, and then said something that would change our lives forever.

"Whoops," he said with a little laugh, "I didn't think of that."


	2. Our New Relative

_PLEASE let me know if there are any spelling mistakes! (Or any other obvious mistakes for that matter.) I'm actually writing this on my phone, where the keys are tiny and autocorrect is as tricky as a...trickster...Anyway..._

CHAPTER TWO

"Come on!" Uncle Donald could never learn the whole 'inside voice' thing, even when he was talking on the phone. "It's just for a couple of months! Pretty please? Hello? Hello, are you there? Hello?"

And just like the inside voice thing, our uncle could somehow never tell when someone hung up on him.

"Louie, did one of you guys cut the phone cord again?"

"No Uncle Donald," I said, finally getting to the boss battle on my handheld game. It wasn't a great game, but it worked and I got it cheap at a yard sale so I guess it paid for itself.

"Are you sure? Because for some reason when I was talking to Miss Patience-"

Oh for crying out loud. Miss Patience was our _teacher._ This is getting a little out of hand.

It's already been a week since Uncle Donald got that letter, and he's having no luck at all finding us a place to stay while he's gone.

"Uncle Donald," I said, pausing the game, "Are you sure we don't have any more relatives? You know, like some long-lost cousin or an uncle or something?"

"Who told you about your uncle?" Uncle Donald asked, just as Huey and Dewey walked in the front door. I guess they had been playing frisbee or something. "I never told you about your uncle!"

"Wait, we have an uncle?" Dewey asked.

"No! I mean, yes, but there is no way I'm asking him to watch you guys!"

"Uncle Donald," Huey said, "Yesterday you asked the mailman."

"That's different!" Uncle Donald said, "My old uncle is nothing but trouble! There's absolutely no way I'm asking him to-"

"Look Uncle Donald," I interrupted, "If you can't find anyone to watch us while you're gone, can you still go and join the navy?"

Uncle Donald actually grimaced. "Fine," he said, "I'll ask him. But I can't promise he'll say yes! That old skinflint only cares about one thing, and that's money. He wouldn't even come out to your father's funeral because he thought the travel fare was too expensive."

And without any further explanations, Uncle Donald stomped over to the phone and began dialing a number in a hurry.

"I didn't know we had another uncle," Huey said to me.

"Mrs. Quackfaster? It's me, Donald Duck. It's been a while. Are you still his secretary?"

Uncle Donald looked up at us. "Well, what are you boys waiting for? Go outside and play!"

I set down my game and followed my other brothers out the door.

"Good, good." I heard Uncle Donald say, "Listen, can you tell him I'm calling? I need to talk to him."

"So if we've had another Uncle this whole time," Dewey said just as I shut the front door behind me, "Why do you think we've never gone to him before when we've needed help?"

"I dunno," Huey said, "But it sounds like we've got some kind of family feud or something."

"I just hope everything works out," I said, "I mean, I don't really want Uncle Donald to join the Navy, but I don't think he'd be very happy if he had to stay here to take care of us."

"Yeah." My brothers agreed.

Uncle Donald didn't call us back inside after a while, so we entertained ourselves with some broken-down rocket-shaped toys and the garden house. I got mine up as high as the house before it broke the attic window.

"BOYS!"

...Yeah. Now I was the one about to get the lecture.

"ALL of you!"

Uncle Donald opened the screen door and stood in the doorway tapping his foot. He was fuming.

"Um, heh heh, sorry Uncle Donald." I said.

"You're not mad, are you?" Dewey asked. Huey and I both looked at him. Of course our uncle was mad! Why else would he-

"No, I'm not mad at you." Uncle Donald said, "I'm mad at that money-loving, stinky, no-good great-uncle of yours!"

"He said no, didn't he." Huey said. It wasn't a question.

"No? I WISH he'd said no!" Donald shouted, turning around and going back into the house. We followed him inside, and he started pacing the kitchen.

"After all these years of not talking, I asked him to watch you guys and you know what he said? He said 'fine.' And THEN he had the nerve to tell me that if I was gonna go get a job and leave you boys behind, I should have done so earlier so he could have been better prepared!"

And just like that, our Uncle exploded. Not literally, but we did have to sit on the kitchen counter just to stay out of the way while he bounced off the walls.

"So, when do we get to meet our new uncle?" Dewey asked. Huey elbowed him, which is what I would have done if I was sitting next to him. Sometimes Dewey had no sense of timing.

Uncle Donald somehow heard the question though, and instantly calmed down.

"Soon," he answered, "Since I'm leaving for the Navy in less than a month, he's gonna come pick you up the day before I go. I just hope he doesn't ask for me to pay for your trip back to Duckburg. That old coot!"

"Aaaand he's back to being angry," I said, while Uncle Donald started another tantrum.

"Wait, did he say Duckburg?" Huey asked, "That's like, really far from here."

"Hey, that awesome!" Dewey said, "I hear that's where the richest duck in the world lives. It's supposed to be this really great city."

"You think we'll come back home for Christmas?" I asked.

"That depends on how long Uncle Donald is in the Navy." Huey said.

At that, we fell silent. We sat there and watched Uncle Donald rage for a while before we slipped off the counter and started sneaking towards our bedroom.

"And whichever one of you broke that window in the attic, I want you to clean it up right away!"

...Dang it. And I thought I was off the hook, too.

* * *

"Remember boys, your uncle loves money, but don't you ever ask him for any!"

It was the day our new uncle was going to come pick us up, and Uncle Donald was repeating to us the same instructions he'd been giving us for a while now.

"We know, we know!" I said.

"If we want anything, we have to buy it with our own money." Dewey said.

"Do you think he'll give us an allowance?" Huey asked.

"Come on, even Uncle Donald doesn't give us an allowance." I said.

"That's because we don't have enough money to-" Uncle Donald started to say, but interrupted himself with a sigh. "Look, boys. Your uncle he loves money WAY too much to just give it away. That's the most important thing you need to understand about him."

There was a loud knocking at the door.

"That's him," Donald said, and I saw him take a deep breath before opening the door.

On the other side of the door, standing at the same height as Uncle Donald was a duck who looked surprisingly like his double at first glance. At the second glance, they were totally different. This other duck was definitely older, with old-fashioned whiskers and even an old-fashioned top-hat and cane.

"Well?" Our new uncle said, his arms crossed, "Aren't you even going to invite me in, nephew?"


	3. Catching the Train

CHAPTER THREE

"Come on in, Uncle Scrooge." Donald said. It came out sounding like he didn't care about whether our new uncle was inside or out. "Scrooge, this is Huey, Dewey and Louie." Uncle Donald pointed to each of us as he said our names. "Boys, this is your great-uncle Scrooge. I want you all to be good while you're gone."

"Yes Uncle Donald." We said.

"And that includes you!" Uncle Donald said, turning towards our new uncle.

"Donald, I hope you know that I can handle a group of ten year olds." Uncle Scrooge said, "Now then. Are you boys ready to leave?"

"Almost, Uncle Scrooge." Huey said.

"We haven't said our good-byes yet." Dewey said.

"Very well then." Uncle Scrooge said, digging into his pocket and pulling out an extremely fat wallet. "Louie m'lad, come here."

Maybe it was just coincidence, but Uncle Scrooge happened to pick the right triplet to look at when he said my name. As soon as I walked up to him, he handed me some bills from the wallet. "Run outside and give this to the taxi driver. Make sure he _stays_ out there while you boys get ready to leave."

"Alright, Uncle Scrooge." I said. I counted the money. It was only two dollars. Wait, no, this wasn't a dollar bill...

"Um, I think you handed me the wrong amount," I said, a little confused. Hidden behind the first dollar bill was not another dollar bill, and it wasn't even a hundred dollar bill. It was a thousand dollar bill.

I had never held so much money in my life.

"Whoops, heh heh," Scrooge quickly grabbed the thousand dollar bill and replaced it with a one dollar bill. "Good eye, laddie."

"Uncle Scrooge, how come you have-" I began, but he interrupted me.

"Hurry up m'boy, the taxi's still got the meter running."

I raced outside, did exactly as Scrooge had told me too, and learned from the disgruntled taxi driver that he would wait just a few more minutes. By the time I got back inside, Huey and Dewey had already said their goodbyes and were just about to drag their luggage out to the taxi.

"Louie," Uncle Donald said, giving me a much-too-tight bear hug, "I'm gonna miss you!"

"I'll miss you too!" I said, trying to hug him back. It didn't work very well because he had my arms pinned to my sides, but at least I tried.

"There. Are we done now?" Uncle Scrooge asked, tapping his foot.

"Goodbye!" Uncle Donald said, setting me down. I grabbed my luggage, which I'd left by the front door a while ago. "Goodbye!" Uncle Donald repeated himself.

"Yes, and goodbye to you too." Uncle Scrooge said, "Now I'm sorry to leave in such a hurry, but the meter's running. Good luck with your job in the Navy!"

Then, maybe because I was a bit slow with my suitcase, Uncle Scrooge grabbed it by the handle and hoisted it over his shoulder. That surprised me, because the bag was pretty heavy.

Uncle Donald stood at the door and continued to shout his good-byes while waving as I got in the car. Huey had already rolled down the window, and he and Dewey started shouting back. Right after Uncle Scrooge tossed my suitcase in the trunk, he jumped into the front seat and told the driver to step on it.

I think that maybe he only wanted to get away so fast because he didn't want to spend any more money idling in the car. It was really amazing that for someone who carried a thousand dollar bill around in his wallet, he would go to such great lengths to save a little bit of money.

"Where to?" asked the taxi driver.

"How much will it cost to get us to the train station?"

At the rough estimate the driver gave, Uncle Scrooge visibly shivered. "Then take us as far as ten dollars will go," he said, "We'll walk the rest of the way from there."

My brothers and I looked at each other. That was the exact moment we _really_ realized just how much trouble this new uncle was gonna be.

* * *

It turns out that ten dollars doesn't take you very far in a taxi.

After we were dropped off somewhere on the side of an old country road, Uncle Scrooge got in an argument with the tough-looking taxi man over the tip. I had never seen an adult looking so angry at another adult the way that taxi driver was angry at Uncle Scrooge-normally, that look was something _we_ got after getting in trouble.

It felt so weird being the ones who _weren't_ in trouble for a change.

After we dragged our bags behind us for a few miles, we made it to the train station and practically fell into one of the benches in the waiting area. It was one of those old-fashioned looking trains with some passenger cars and some baggage cars, and it looked like we were just in time to board.

"Huey, straighten your luggage or someone might trip over it." Uncle Scrooge said, not even turning his head as he continued on towards the ticket counter. I left my stuff with Huey and Dewey to follow him.

"Not going to join your brothers, Louie?" Uncle Scrooge asked, "Well then, come watch how it's done!"

He was just going to get our tickets for the train, but I wanted to see if something interesting would happen.

I was right. Watching Uncle Scrooge actually try to negotiate train tickets was a brand new experience.

"No!" The ticket master said, "There is no way this boy and those two boys over there qualify as babies. They have to pay the child rate. And if you don't stop complaining about it, I'm going to make you pay for yourself as an adult and take away your senior privileges!"

"Outrageous!" Uncle Scrooge said, "This is highway robbery! These ticket prices are-"

"Yeah? Well, tell that to the bigwigs who own this line, not to me! Now if you aren't going to buy any tickets, I suggest you scram!"

And then, to my surprise, he closed the window to the ticket counter.

"Oh yeah?" Uncle Scrooge shouted to the closed window, "You're lucky you weren't wearing a nametag, I could have fired you for this!"

Then he turned to me, surprisingly happy, "Come on, laddie. I'll show you and your brothers I tricked I learned back in the old west. It's perfect for today!"

This was a weird turn of events.

"Boys, grab everything and follow me!"

We all got our bags, and followed our uncle off the station platform.

"Now, the trick to this is not to get caught." Uncle Scrooge said, a twinkle in his eyes as he led the way towards the end of the train, far from the passenger platform. "When I say 'go', I want you boys to run as fast as you can and jump into that open boxcar over there."

Wait...what? We were actually going to sneak onto the train?

Alright, this was getting ridiculous. Maybe Huey and Dewey didn't know because they hadn't seen Uncle Scrooge's wallet, but he could clearly afford to buy us all tickets.

"Go!"

I found myself the last one running this time. In my defense, I didn't get as much rest as the others. Huey and Dewey seemed pretty excited, and were quickly at the car. They tossed their bags up and jumped inside like they had done this before.

By the time I reached the car, the train whistle had signaled that it was about to go. I tossed my bag inside just as Uncle Scrooge jumped in, and I was about to jump up too when the train actually started moving.

"Whaaa!" I shouted, letting go of the train for a second. Yeah, it startled me just a little.

"Louie! Hop in, quickly!" "Hurry!" My brothers yelled, and I reached out for the floor of the train car to pull myself inside. But then the train started going faster, and I missed.

It suddenly became a real possibility that I might miss the train.

"Hang on lad, I'm coming!" Uncle Scrooge shouted, and he jumped out of the moving train. He landed running and held onto his top hat to keep it from flying off.

"You boys stay right there! Don't move!" He called inside to the others while running next to me alongside the train.

"Now Louie, calm down, it's alright. Just reach out and grab the open door." He encouraged.

"Uncle Scrooge, the train is getting faster!" I shouted. I was slightly starting to freak out.

"Then maybe _we'd_ better slow down," Uncle Scrooge said. "See where this car meets the one after it? We can catch the train if we hop up there."

I saw what he was talking about. There was even a ladder on the side we could grab on.

Uncle Scrooge grabbed my hand and pulled a little to slow me down, then when the back of the car started to pass us we jumped towards it.

We missed.

"It's okay lad, that was a good practice run!" Uncle Scrooge said, "Let's aim for the next one!"

The train was getting really fast now, so the next car came up almost immediately.

"Now!"

Somehow we were both hanging onto the ladder in the side of the train. I'm not really sure how we got there.

"Climb up, Louie!" Uncle Scrooge shouted from just below me, "We need to get to the roof!"

Although I wasn't sure why we would want to be on the roof of a moving train, I started climbing anyway. When I got to the top, I hugged the train as best I could and tried to make myself as low as possible.

"Come on, there's a good lad!" Uncle Scrooge said, pulling me to my feet. I'm not sure how he was able to stand on the roof at all, but I was secretly happy that he didn't let go of me.

"Now," Uncle Scrooge said, majestically staring off towards the front of the train as a lot of nice forest scenery and wind flew by, "Your brothers are in that one two cars ahead of us. We're going to have to jump across to get there."

"J-jump?" I asked.

"Of course," Uncle Scrooge said, pulling my arm forward. Since the rest of me didn't want to be left behind, I let him lead me all the way to the edge of the baggage car we were standing on. Beneath us was that space where the the only things we could see were tracks and that clamp thing that holds two cars of a train together.

"Now don't worry, I've done this before." Uncle Scrooge said, still holding my arm as he carefully backed us up. "Ready? Run! Annnnd... Jump!"

Somehow we made it to the other side in one piece. Actually, that was kind of fun.

"We'd best move quickly now," Uncle Scrooge said, leading me forward, "We need to clear this next jump before that curve up ahead."

We ran, and without even stopping to look underneath us we jumped again, landing safely. The train started to turn into a curve, but Uncle Scrooge held us in place by grabbing the opposite side of the train with his cane.

"This is our car, right?" I asked.

"Right!" My uncle said, and he stopped at a spot in the roof where there was thankfully an escape hatch.

"Um, Uncle Scrooge?"

I gestured up ahead. The train was pulling out of the forest and heading towards a mountain. Pretty soon, we would go straight into that tunnel...and it looked like there would only be a few inches of space between the tunnel and the train.

"We've got to work fast." Uncle Scrooge said, yanking open the trapdoor. "Quick, get inside!"

The mountain was even closer now. We were heading right for it.

Without even looking, I jumped down into the train and landed on someone's luggage.

"Hey!" Dewey shouted, surprised. It looked like Huey and Dewey were so busy looking out the large side door for us that they didn't realize we were up on the roof.

But there was no time for explanations. I rolled out of the way just as Uncle Scrooge landed where I had just been standing.

"Haha! We made it!" He shouted, and then the entire train went dark. We had just gone into the tunnel.


	4. Trading for Lunch

CHAPTER FOUR

"Ack, I haven't had that much fun in ages!" Uncle Scrooge said, "And to think, we saved a fortune on train tickets too!"

"That was _so_ cool!" Huey said, and he reached out to help me up.

"I wish I could have done that," Dewey said, looking up at the open hatch in the roof.

"Uncle Scrooge, why _did_ we hop the train?" I asked, "You've got more than enough money to pay for tickets."

"How do you think I _got_ that money?" Uncle Scrooge asked.

"But you even have a thousand dollar bill in your wallet." I pointed out.

"Aw come on, Louie. Are you sure you didn't imagine that somewhere?" Dewey asked.

"Yeah." Huey said, "Who would carry a thousand dollars around with them even if they had it?"

"I've got more than that with me," Uncle Scrooge said, pulling out his billfold. "Didn't your Uncle Donald tell you about me?"

He pulled out and waved in front of us not a hundred dollar bill, not a thousand dollar bill, no, not even a _ten_ thousand dollar bill, but a _hundred-thousand_ dollar bill.

We were floored. Literally, I mean we all ended up sitting down.

Uncle Scrooge chuckled and put the bill back in his wallet. "I can see your uncle didn't tell you much." He said. "No matter. But just so you know, my money is mine alone. I made it, so I can spend it. Don't go asking for handouts just because yer m'nephews."

"Uncle Scrooge," Huey said, "Are you really rich?"

"Of course I am!" Our uncle almost looked offended. "I'm Scrooge McDuck, the richest duck in the world. Why, I even own this very train we're sittin' on."

We stopped to think about that for a moment.

"Then why didn't we get seats inside for free?" Dewey asked.

"And take those same seats away from potential _paying_ customers?" Uncle Scrooge asked, "That's a sure-fire way to lose money, laddie. Besides," he chuckled, "This way is a lot more fun."

"..."

"So, when do we get to Duckburg?" Huey asked, breaking the silence.

"For crying out loud, we only just left the station! We'll get there when the train is good and ready." Uncle Scrooge said, "You boys amuse yourselves as best you can, I'm going to go count me money. Don't fall off the train, ye hear?"

And just like that, he walked over to a corner, sat down, and pulled out his wallet. I wonder if counting money was a regular hobby of his.

Thankfully, we had remembered to pack toys in our bags before we left. Dewey started using my handheld game while Huey started re-reading his favorite detective book. I played with a baseball for a while, throwing it up against a solid wall of the train and letting it roll back to me, but once that got boring I got up and sat down next to Uncle Scrooge.

"Tired already, Louie?" He asked, not even looking up from his money. He was flipping through the stack like it was a deck of cards. It suddenly occurred to me that he was always getting our names right.

"I dunno," I responded.

I let my back touch the wall we were up against and closed my eyes, listening to the sounds around me. The train as it click-clacked down the track, Huey as he turned pages, Dewey as he battled aliens on the handheld, and Uncle Scrooge as he rifled through a fat stack of money...

"Louie. Wake up, lad!"

I groaned. "Five more minutes, Uncle Donald."

"Wrong uncle. Now wake up!"

"Huh? Wait, wha-what time is it?" I asked.

"It's time ta leave." Uncle Scrooge pulled me to my feet, "Your brothers are already at the limo with Launchpad."

"At the-what? And who's Launchpad?" I asked, following Uncle Scrooge out the door. I didn't realize the train car was so high off the ground, no wonder I had trouble getting in earlier.

"He's m'personal pilot. Cheapest one I could find. Has a few loose screws in the head, if ya know what I mean, but he tries."

Uncle Scrooge quickly led the way, and I ran to keep up with him.

"Wait, my suitcase!"

"Laundpad took care o'that for ya," Uncle Scrooge said dismissively.

"Wait, how did he know where we-"

"The conductor showed him."

"Hang on, the conductor? As in, the train conductor?"

"Ya slept through the whole thing," Scrooge said, "We got discovered right when the train passed through St. Canard. Quite an adventure, that. Ah! Here we are."

We stopped just in front of one of those really old-fashioned limousines, the kind so old that it wasn't even a stretch limo. A grown-up duck who was very obviously a pilot was currently stuffing suitcases into the trunk.

"Hey, Mr. McD!" He greeted, "Back from picking up your sleeping nephew, eh?"

"Louie!" "You're awake!" My brothers shouted, jumping out of the car.

"Louie, you totally missed it!" Dewey said.

"Some guy in a mask with a funny hat found out we were stowaways when they train went through a big city, and he told the conductor," Huey said.

"But everything was fine when they found out Uncle Scrooge owned the train!" Dewey finished.

"I can't believe you slept through the whole thing!" Huey added.

"Launchpad, this is m'nephew Louie." Uncle Scrooge said, "Now, bring all the suitcase up ta the mansion. We're going ta join you there after we get the boys something ta eat."

"Alright, D-man. Nice to meet you, kids! See you all later!"

"Wait, you really will treat us?" Huey asked, "Ya mean it?"

"I promised you on the train, didn't I?" Uncle Scrooge said, just as the limo started driving away.

It drove straight into a building.

"Ignore that. Happens all the time." Uncle Scrooge said as the limo backed up and started off down the one-way street in the wrong direction, "Now, the deal was that we could eat out but _I_ get ta choose where."

"When did you make this deal?" I asked.

"When you were asleep." Huey answered.

"Anyway," Uncle Scrooge said, "I want you boys to watch this very carefully."

He bent down, and picked up a blue button that was lying in the grass.

"This button," he started to explain, "Is precisely what I will use to pay for our meal today."

"Huh?" I asked, "How are you going to pay for a meal with a button?"

Uncle Scrooge chuckled. "Stick close and you'll find out," he said. "Ah, ma'am!"

There was a lady passing by on the sidewalk. "Yes?" She asked.

"Can I interest you in a trade?" Uncle Scrooge asked, "This button for that pack of tissue paper?"

I didn't even notice until he said it, but an unopened tissue pack, the small kind wrapped in plastic, was sticking out of the lady's pocket.

"Sure," she said, "I could use a blue button."

"Much obliged, ma'am. Thank you!" Uncle Scrooge said, tipping his hat to her.

He gestured for us to follow him, and we walked down the street until we got to a man who was sitting on a park bench in front of a building.

"Can i interest you in a trade?" Uncle Scrooge said, "I'll give ya this unopened package of tissues for that book of yers."

"This?" The man asked, patting the book next to him, "Got it for two bucks and just finished reading it. It's a deal."

"Thank you!" Uncle Scrooge said, and he raced down the road again. We had to run to keep up with him.

By now I realized what was going on. Uncle Scrooge was seriously going to keep trading until he got us a meal. While this was really pretty cool, at the same time I wondered if doing to this to save twenty bucks was really worth it.

"Madam!" Uncle Scrooge said, talking to a middle-aged lady this time, "Would you care to trade this book for that purse?"

Just as the lady was emptying out her old purse to get the book she apparently wanted, a group of grown-ups suddenly pushed their way in between me and my brothers.

"Oof!" I said as someone pushed me.

Suddenly, someone covered my mouth, and my feet left the ground! I was being kidnapped in broad daylight!

"Quickly, bring him here!"

"Ouch! This alley's too small for us, Bigtime!"

"Quit complaining!"

I was set down on the ground, but was quickly tied up before I had a chance to escape.

"So the rumors were true," one of the grown-ups said. Now that I could see them more clearly, they were all wearing matching shirts. For some reason, each one of them had a different number on it.

"Scrooge really _did_ bring his nephews ta town." A different grown up said.

"Listen kid," the third and final grown up said, "Nothing personal, but we're the Beagle Boys. Everyone knows that we're after Scroogie's money, and we're gonna use _you_ ta get some."

The Beagle Boys? Never heard of them. Not like I could tell them that when my mouth was gagged, though.

"Burger, d'ya think Scrooge knows we took the kid?"

"How would I know? I was distracted by the smell o'candy from that store we passed by. Hey, think we could go there and steal us a little snack? Ow! That hurt, Bigtime!"

"Don't be an idiot! The smallest Beagle Boy said, "Well, he'll find out soon enough. Although maybe we should change our location, if you know what I mean."

Someone picked me up, and we rushed out of the alleyway.

"Yoo-hoo! Scroogie!" A Beagle shouted, "We've got your kid!"

"No! That's not what I wanted you to do!" Bigtime yelled.

"Louie!" Uncle Scrooge said, running up to us. He was holding a brown bag now, I guess he had traded for it. "The Beagle Boys! Let him go, right this instant!"

"Ah ah ah! No can do, Scrooge!" Bigtime said, "We'll give you the kid only if you give us your wallet first."

"Me money!" Uncle Scrooge looked like he was about to faint.

"That's right! Now fork it over, or else the kid gets it!"

Uncle Scrooge took some really shallow breaths. Huey and Dewey, standing next to him, looked like they wanted to beat up this Beagle bunch.

"Alright," Uncle Scrooge gasped, "I'll give you what I have. But you give me the boy at the same time!"

"Fair enough," Bigtime said, and snapped his fingers. "Burger, untie the kid and walk him over to his uncle. Scrooge, you'd better hand over the money!"

"Yes, yes." Uncle Scrooge said nervously. "Are ya alright, Louie?"

"Yes," I said as soon as my mouth was untied.

The Beagle named Burger walked me over to Uncle Scrooge, who was already holding out his very thick wallet.

"Oh boy, look at how many sweets I could buy with that!" Burger said, pushing me towards Uncle Scrooge while he grabbed the money. Uncle Scrooge wrapped his arm around me.

"Why wait?"

"Huh?" Burger asked.

"I said, why wait?" Uncle Scrooge repeated, "You can wait if ya want and get those sweets later, or-" he grabbed the paper bag he had given to Dewey to hold onto-"You could trade me right now for these deluxe doughnuts. How about it? _These_ treats for _that_ wallet."

"Oh goodie! What a deal!" The Beagle said, and with one swift movements the Beagle had the doughnuts and Uncle Scrooge had his wallet back.

"What? No!" Bigtime yelled, "Burger, you IDIOT!"

"Heh heh heh," Uncle Scrooge chuckled, "I suggest you Beagles run for it! I think I finally hear sirens."

"Yipes! The cops!"

Practically tripping over themselves, the Beagle Boys raced down the road, passing a small police car that turned around to chase after them.

"Louie m'lad, I'm sorry." Uncle Scrooge said, "I didn't realize that you were kidnapped. I thought you went to look around a bit."

"It's okay Uncle Scrooge." I said, "I'm sorry too."

"What are _you_ sorry for?" Huey asked.

"Well, now we have nothing to eat." I said.

"Do you think we can start over?" Dewey asked, bending down to pick something up off the ground. "Here's another button just like the first one."

"I think we might be able ta do that," Uncle Scrooge said, taking the blue button and tossing it up in the air as we walked past a restaurant.

"Wha-wait!" Someone shouted, running out of the restaurant to chase after us, "Stop! Please stop!"

"Who are you?" Huey asked.

"I'm the owner of this pizza and ice cream place," he said, "Can I see that thing in your hand?"

He practically thrust himself into Uncle Scrooge's personal space to look at his hands.

"It is, it is!" He exclaimed.

" _What_ is?" Uncle Scrooge asked angrily.

"This!" The man said, pointing at the button, "It's a blue button off the shirt of my favorite foreign dignitary. He visited Duckburg two days ago and his shirt broke down by the train station. I thought all the buttons were picked up already. Please, if you give me that button, I'll do anything! I'll-I'll even let you all have a whole meal and dessert, free of charge!"

Uncle Scrooge clapped the man on the back.

"It's a deal!"


	5. The Fourth Triplet

_Sorry it took a while for this next chapter. I was pretty sure I was done with the introductory chapters and ready to start writing the adventures, but there was something missing. Hopefully this chapter bridges the gap...Also, concrit is well received!_

CHAPTER FIVE

So, after that little adventure, the free meal and the walk up to Scrooge's mansion on a hill was kind of anti-climactic. It was Huey who pointed out that we could have driven up there with Launchpad, which kind of put a damper on our first impressions of the place. The rest of the day was filled with us getting settled into our shared bedroom, and with Huey and Dewey getting a massive stomachache.

Which turned out to be bad enough that Uncle Scrooge told them they didn't have to go to school the next day. Which in turn meant that I was going to have to spend the first day at a new school by myself. Joy.

"Come _on_ , guys, you can't seriously be sick enough to miss school!" I said in the living room, where I was the only one dressed and ready to go.

"Oh yes we can," Dewey said, looking like he was about to barf.

"I think it was those pizza slices that masked guy from St. Canard gave us. They must've been old..." Huey explained.

"Uncle Scrooge was right when he told us not to eat them..." Dewey said.

"But it's the first day! What about our prank traditions?"

"They can wait until tomorrow," Dewey said.

"Seriously though, aren't we a little old to keep doing pra-a-a-look out, I'm gonna hurl..." Huey raced past me towards the bathroom.

I guess they really were a little too sick for school.

"Launchpad'll stay with them, don't you worry." Uncle Scrooge said, patting me on the shoulder, "And after I drop you off at school and make a pit stop at the office, I'll make them my special cold-be-gone soup. Works every time!"

"Wait, you're taking me to school?" I asked, "No way! I can't be seen on my first day of school with a responsible adult! It'll ruin my image."

"Ack, who cares what other people think?" Uncle Scrooge said, grabbing his hat and cane, "Any way, I owe it to yer Uncle Donald ta make sure ya get to school on time. It's not like I'm planning on going ta school _with_ you, laddie."

"Clearly, you haven't been to school in a _long_ time." I mumbled.

Still, I let Uncle Scrooge lead me out the front door. Surprise surprise, he headed straight for the sidewalk. He was planning to walk the whole way there, kinda like how he had walked with us all the way to the mansion yesterday.

I sort of tuned him out when he started talking about his youth. Sort of. I mean, it was kind of hard to ignore him once he started talking about the Gold Rush because hey, it was the Gold Rush. By the time we had reached a street corner in town and could see the school building barely a block away, Scrooge was talking about finding diamonds in Africa. I hate to admit it, but this was all kind of interesting.

"So," Scrooge said, stopping his story, "There's the school. I'll expect you back at the mansion when classes are over. Good luck now!"

"Alright, fine, see you later!" I said. Secretly I was glad that he wasn't going to 'drop me off' any closer to the school.

"Scrooge McDuck! What an unpleasant surprise!"

"Ack!"

That didn't sound too good, so I turned around. Next to Uncle Scrooge was some strange woman I had never seen before, some lady all dressed in black.

"Magica deSpell!" Scrooge said, "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be behind bars!"

"I vas, until I used a little spell I had been saving." The woman said, "And who is ze young boy with you?"

"One of me nephews," Scrooge said, then turning to me, "Don't tell her your name, lad. This woman is a real Witch."

"That is truth!" The woman said, "And I have finally perfected ze right spell to get hands on ultimate treasure. _Poisons and potions, turn back time! So I can get Scrooge's number one dime!_ "

Surprisingly, there was a giant POOF! and a large cloud of blue smoke. I couldn't help but cough.

"Drats! Is not working!" Magica coughed, although I could barely see her in all that smoke, "Never fear, Scrooge! I will be back again later when spell is working!"

There was another POOF! sound, and suddenly the woman _flew_ up over the smoke on a broomstick and cackled as she left us in the dust. I guess she really was a witch, after all.

"Another failed attempt at me number one dime," Scrooge coughed, "First dime I ever made, so she thinks-"

"Whoa whoa hold up," I said, "Is that really you?"

"Of course it's me!" He said, sounding upset, "Who else would it-"

"Were we _always_ the same size?" I asked.

The smoke had mostly cleared away by now, so it was glaringly obvious that we were indeed the same size. And that Uncle Scrooge was suddenly a _lot_ smaller. His clothes had even changed, although they were more like rags now, and he had a cap on his head instead of his top hat.

It was really weird. And also kinda cool.

He groaned. "Of all the cheap tricks!" He shouted, "That witch turned me back to the age when I got me first dime!" He grabbed my hand and started pulling me down the street. "Come on, we have to catch up with her and-"

"Aren't you kids going in the wrong direction?" Asked a voice, and the two of us looked up. There was a policeman standing there looking down at us, and he didn't look too happy.

So yeah, I was late to my first day at school, apparently. Although I was used to going to the principal's office with my brothers on the first day of school, I had never gone there before even meeting the teacher. And never with my great uncle as my partner in crime, either.

"So, you are some of the Duck triplets. I thought two of you were ill?" The Principal said, looking down at us from his desk.

"Actually, I am not-"

"I know this is a new school for you, but running away on the first day?" The Principal interrupted, "I'll let you both off with a warning, but I expect better behaviour from you in the future. Now, both of you get to your class."

"But I am _not_ one of m'nephews." Scrooge said, standing on his chair to make a point, "I was turned inta this age by Magica deSpell. I am really-"

The Principal started laughing, effectively interrupting him. "So you've heard of the witch, have you?" He said, wiping a tear from his eye, "You won't believe how many students try to get out of school using her as an excuse. Unfortunately for you, she only targets Mr. McDuck. Now, it's nice to see you being so energetic and all, but I've got work to do."

...Aaaand he unceremoniously kicked us out of his office.

"Of all the incompetent nincompoops!" Uncle Scrooge said, heading down the empty school hallway, "The nerve of that man! Come on, lad. We have to ditch this place to go find Magica and reverse this spell."

"What, really?" I asked, "You actually want me to ditch school?"

Uncle Scrooge stopped right where he was standing. "On second thought, Magica can wait until after school. It _is_ yer first day after all, laddie."

Well, this was suddenly really, really awkward. Uncle Scrooge was actually going to school with me. I wasn't sure if he was pretending to be Huey or Dewey, because when he introduced himself to our new teacher he kind of slurred the first part of the name. It had sounded a little like _Whoo_ _-ey_. So now he was sitting at the desk next to mine, which kind of nixed my initial school plan of bragging to the other students about my rich uncle.

"Do you really have to hold up your hand when you want to ask a question?" He whispered to me.

"So Duck brothers," the teacher said, her nasal voice piercing the classroom. Maybe her glasses were on too tight or something, that kind of voice was really unnatural. "What brings you to Duckburg?"

"Um, my uncle joined the Navy," I explained, hyper aware that Uncle Scrooge was listening to this, "So we came here to stay with our other uncle."

"Question!" Some kid from the back asked, "Are there really three of you? And are you all really triplets?"

"What was it like where you came from? Was it out in the middle of nowhere?"

"How come one of you has a really weird accent?"

"Quiet students," the teacher sighed, "You can all ask those kinds of questions later. I want you to properly introduce yourselves to...well, we'll get their names right later. But right now, I want you all to pay attention to the board. We're going to be moving right along..."

I had never looked forward to lunch break as much as I did that day. Let me tell you, it was super weird going to school with your great-uncle. Especially since he seemed to be really enjoying himself, while I had to pay for both our lunches.

"So, I've been thinking." Uncle Scrooge said when we sat down at a quiet table by ourselves. Which I would totally did not want, by the way, since normally I would herd my brothers to sit at a popular table while we still had the chance. "Magica doesn't know she did this ta me, and she might not want to undo it. But even if we can't catch up to her in her old hideout, her spells usually have a very simple solution."

"...And that is?" I asked, stuffing myself with the cafeteria mashed potatoes.

"Simple! All it takes is for someone to recognize you and say your name. Go on, try it."

"Ooookay. Sc-. Wait. Sc-. Hang on. Mc-" Dang it tongue, why couldn't I say the name Scrooge McDuck?

"Ack, I should have seen this coming. Looks like you're under her spell, too." Uncle Scrooge said.

"Spell? What spell?" I asked.

"Ya see, sometimes with her transformation spells you can't tell anyone who ya are. I realized it when I couldn't tell the Principal or the Teacher. You must have gotten caught up in the spell with me since you witnessed it."

And Uncle Scrooge went back to eating his food, like this was all perfectly normal.

"...So, if we can get Launchpad or my brothers to recognize you, you're back to normal?" I asked, trying to ignore the fact that for the first time in my life, I was under an actual spell.

"Yup." Uncle Scrooge smiled, "That is, if we can't find the witch on our own and get her ta reverse it herself."

"HIYA!" Someone cried out, and Uncle Scrooge dropped his spegettit with a cry of surprise as a girl's face suddenly appeared in front of my own, "I'm Webby! Nice to meet you two! I'm behind you in class. What are your names again? You're Louie, right? It must be really weird moving here from so far away. So how do you like Duckburg? You like it, right? I like it too. Maybe we can be friends! Want to be friends?"

Whoa, when was she going to take a breath?

"So, you wanna hang out at the arcade when school's over? I mean, I understand if you don't since your brother is sick. Hey, it'll be really cool to see three identical twins at school! Oh wait, that's not how it works, if that happened there would be six of you, not three! You two look identical, although _you_ have a heavy accent, so are you all identical or fraternal? And by the way, is that accent Scottish? It sounds Scottish. Hey, I'm pretty good with accents, wanna hear some of my impressions?"

"Well, I'm off ta find the Teacher and ask her a few things before class. You kids have fun." Uncle Scrooge said, standing up with his now-empty lunch tray.

"Wait, you're leaving me?" I asked.

"Geez lad, I thought you _wanted_ to be left alone," Uncle Scrooge said, "I'll see you both back in the classroom!"

Great. _Now_ he leaves me. I spent the rest of the lunch break eating my food while listening to Webby ask me questions. Which surprisingly wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Thankfully, although it took forever, the school day finally came to an end. Which was great, because I had decided to block out all the most embarrassing moments of the day, like all the questions Scrooge asked in class, out of my memory, and if the day were any longer I might have ended up forgetting everything that had ever happened to me.

"I have ta admit, that was kind of fun." Uncle Scrooge said, leading the way back to the mansion, "Did you see what a treasure trove that school library was?"

He kept on talking about school for the entire rest of the walk back, and when we got to the mansion he knocked on the door without thinking twice about it.

"Yes?" Launchpad asked, opening the door, "Oh, school's over already? Was I supposed to pick you up? Sorry about that. Come on in, boys."

He left the door open for us, but started to walk away from it. "That's weird, I thought everyone but the green guy was sick." I heard him say.

"Launchpad," Scrooge said, tapping his foot with his arms crossed, "Get back here!"

"What?" Launchpad asked, coming back to the door with a large pot of soup in his now-gloved hands, "Did you want something, little buddy?"

"Do you happen to notice anything different about me, Launchpad?"

"No. Why? Did you get a haircut?"

Uncle Scrooge and I both sighed.

"I guess that didn't work." I said, "Maybe Huey or Dewey will notice?"

"They'd better," Uncle Scrooge said.

We stepped inside, and I closed the door behind us.

"Oh, by the way, your Uncle Donald is here." Launchpad called out from the other room, "Says his ship came in or something."

"Donald! Of course, the Naval Training Exercises!" Uncle Scrooge shouted, practically dragging me into the living room.

There was Uncle Donald, placing a wet towel on Huey's forehead. Huey was lying on one couch and Dewey was on the other, both looking really miserable.

"Hello you two," He said, looking up at us, "I just stopped by as a surprise. I can't take off more than a day though. How was your first day of school?"

"Uncle Donald, it's really good to see you again!" I said, pouncing on him like I hadn't seen him just the other day, "Here, look, notice anything different about S-" Dang it, my tongue still couldn't say Scrooge's name!

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Uncle Donald asked, "Listen, it's good to see you and all, but your brothers are really sick, so I have to be here for them. Why don't you go play at the arcade?"

And then, to add insult to injury, Uncle Donald pulled out his wallet and handed several bills over to Uncle Scrooge. Did he really not notice that he suddenly had a fourth nephew? "Go on now," He said, "No need for you both to get sick, I'll take care of things here. Whoops, need more towels..."

"Hey, wait, Uncle Donald-" I said, but he was already halfway out of the room. I sighed.

"Huey, Dewey," Scrooge said, walking around the couches so they could see him better, "Who am I?"

Huey groaned and kinda looked at him a little through his eyelids, but Dewey didn't move. Judging by the way he was breathing, Dewey was fast asleep.

"Well?"

"Louie and Dewey," Huey said, his throat sounding dry, "Why are you even asking-ow, my head..."

"Drink some soup, Huey." Uncle Donald said, coming back into the room with am armful of hand towels, "Well? Don't you _want_ to go to the arcade?" He asked us.

With a heavy sigh, Uncle Scrooge turned away from the living room. "Come on, lad." He called me, and I followed him out the front door.

"It looks like the only way we'll get rid of this spell is to find Magica herself," Scrooge told me, "Luckily, I happen to know where her office is downtown."

So, a witch has a downtown office? Alright, let's go with that.

"Of course, it would be much faster if we drove there." Uncle Scrooge said, heading toward the garage.

"Wait wait wait, hold up." I said, "You can't drive! You're like, my age."

"I've got a perfectly good license!" Uncle Scrooge said, typing in the code to open the garage door from the outside, "I'll have you know that I once drove a car away from a herd of stampeding elephants. Once I even flew a plane out of an erupting volcano. And let me tell you, that was _not_ easy."

The garage was now opened all the way, and Scrooge had already opened the driver side door.

"Hang on, if you can drive and even fly a plane, why did you even hire Launchpad?" I asked.

"Look, are you getting in the car or not?"

The car, of course, was the limo. Kinda conspicuous if you want to hide the fact that a kid was driving. This was really going to get us into trouble...

I opened the passenger door and got inside the car.

"Hold onto yer kilt," Uncle Scrooge said, and he started it up.

Surprisingly, nothing happened. I mean, I don't think his feet could even reach the pedals, but we somehow made it downtown without any problems. Seriously, why on earth did he hire Launchpad?

"Here we are," Scrooge said, parallel parking the limo in front of an ordinary office building, "Stay close to me, lad. And let me do all the talking."

He walked up to the front door of the building and walked inside, waving to the secretary behind the desk as he pressed the button on the elevator.

"Magica's lair is on the top floor," he explained to me as we stepped inside the elevator, "She really likes heights. Makes things easier."

Makes _what_ easier?

When the elevator door opened, there was Magica herself, staring at us with her arms crossed.

"Well well," she said, "I know dat you vere coming, but I had no idea you would be child again. Looks like spell actually worked for change."

"And it's about time that you ended it," Scrooge said, stepping out of the elevator. I did the same. "Turn me back ta normal, Magica."

"Oooo, Scrooge thinks he is so scary," Magica taunted, "Well, tough. I don't have solution to problem of yours. Even if I did have vay to turn you back to normal, what makes you think I use it? This only make things easier. Now hand over dime."

"Not on your life!" Uncle Scrooge said, "What makes you think I would just hand it over?"

"Vell, if you don't, the boy gets it!" The witch said, pointing her finger at me.

Hey, it was just a finger. How could that possibly be a threat to-

"Leave my nephew out of this!" Uncle Scrooge said, sounding angrier than I had ever heard him before.

And then, in what was clearly a major overreaction, he scooped up some beaker filled with an unknown something off a nearby table and just-well, he just threw it at Magica.

The stuff exploded in some kind of pink haze. "Why you-how dare you!" Magica screamed even as she coughed, "That was special magic formula!"

"Don't you EVER threaten my family again!" Scrooge said, looking down.

Why was he looking down?

Oh. Magica had shrunk. She was about the size of a mouse now. I was kind of surprised that I wasn't surprised. Was I this used to magic and spells now?

"Fine, I get it, I get it." Magica said, her voice clear although it wasn't very loud, "You can go now. But listen carefully, Scrooge. If you don't get someone to call you by name by time sun sets, you vill be stuck in young body for rest of life. Of course, I don't count. But vith you in young body, dime is easy to snatch. Don't say I didn't varn you!"

She cackled, and suddenly, _poof!_ The mouse-sized witch disappeared.

"Well." Uncle Scrooge said, looking at the spot on the floor she had been standing in, "That didn't quite work out the way I planned."

"What do we do now?" I asked, "Is there someone else who could recognize you?"

Uncle Scrooge sighed, and shook his head. "We'll figure this out somehow," he said, "Maybe there's something we can say that will get Launchpad or one of the boys to realize it before dark."

He was silent the entire limo drive back to the mansion. Inside, Uncle Donald was still in the living room with Huey and Dewey, who were awake now and looked a lot better.

"Hey, you're back from the arcade!" Launchpad said, poking his head out of the kitchen, "If you kids want, I have four bowls of chicken noodle soup that are calling your names! Oh, and a fifth one for you too, Mr. Donald sir."

"Sure. Why not." Uncle Scrooge said.

"Pass." Uncle Donald said, folding some dry hand towels.

"Louie, why are there two of you?" Huey asked weakly.

"Oh, he's the fourth triplet." I said, hoping that he could figure it out from there. But my brother was already lying back down on the bed and probably hadn't heard me.

"Whoa, where has the day gone?" Launchpad asked, coming into the living room and handing me and Uncle Scrooge our bowls of soup, "It seems like only this morning that you left for your first day of school..."

"That _was_ this morning, Launchpad." Scrooge said, sipping his soup. "Look, Louie." He gestured with his head to the clock on the wall, "Sunset should be any minute now."

"You know, it's been bothering me ever since you came home from school," Uncle Donald said, looking at us with a strange face, "But I can't help but feel like there's something different about you. Did you get a new hat, Uncle Scrooge?"

"..."

 _POOF!_

Well, at least everything worked out somehow.


	6. Cold Gold

_A special shout-out to GuestGirl and raphlover2012 for your reviews! Thanks!_

CHAPTER SIX

"I can't believe I missed Uncle Donald," Huey complained for the umpteenth time as he tied his shoes, "I didn't even know he was here until he left!"

Oh come on, you and Dewey spent the most time with him! He left right after dinner. I barely even got to see him!

"It's no fun being sick..." Dewey said, putting on his jacket.

I totally agree, especially since I was currently splayed across the living room couch with a throw-up bucket next to my head.

Third day of school, and I had already caught my brother's colds. I think. Didn't they get theirs from food poisoning? Dang it, we triplets really do share everything.

"Are you sure you won't be able to make it to school, Louie?" Huey asked me.

"Yeah, we're going to sit with Webby at lunch." Dewey said.

I mustered up all the strength I had just to answer them.

"No." I said, my voice sounding like a bunch of frogs were trying to tap dance down my throat. Yek, what a weird image.

"...Well, you sound terrible." Dewey said.

"We'll tell everyone you said 'hi'." Huey said.

Everyone? Who's everyone? The first day with all three of us was yesterday. Who did we know aside from Webby?

"Goodbye, Louie!" My brothers interrupted my thoughts as they opened the front door.

"Get better soon!" Dewey said.

"So, you think Webby will ask us again why Louie lost his accent? Weird, right?" I heard Huey ask Dewey, and then the door closed.

Silence.

The entire mansion was usually pretty quiet, which is one reason why we liked to make a lot of noise. It's unnatural for a place to be too quiet, you know. But today I had a headache, and the silence felt great. Launchpad was probably out in the back hangar with his airplanes again, and I don't know what Uncle Scrooge does, but unless you open the door to his office you usually can't hear him doing anything.

I think I started to doze off, because suddenly there was a hand on my forehead.

"Curse me kilts, you're burning up." Uncle Scrooge said, "Why didn't anyone tell me you were sick? Did they jest leave without you?"

I started to think about what to answer him-that my brothers wouldn't have left me behind if they thought I was really too sick-but somewhere along the way I stopped thinking and just relished the feeling of Scrooge's cold hand.

Man, that felt comfortable.

"Well, you just rest up now, lad. I'll fix ye something to help get rid of that cold."

The hand left. Noooo! Why did that cold hand leave? I muttered a little in protest, but my throat felt too bad to actually say anything.

"Stay there, Louie. I'll be back soon." Uncle Scrooge said, and suddenly it was silent again.

For a long time, I stared at the corner of the fireplace. It was very convenient, since it was directly in my line of sight. Had some very interesting carvings on it too. When that got too boring, I closed my eyes. Only for a little bit...

"Louie, wake up m'lad." Uncle Scrooge said gently, his hand rubbing my shoulder. I didn't realize how much my shoulder ached until then. Slowly I opened my eyes, and after blinking for a few seconds I saw my Uncle in front of me again.

"I made ye some of me special soup. Now I want you ta eat it all, understand?"

Uncle Scrooge's voice was much softer than normal, almost as if he knew about my headache. With a nod I sat up as much as I could and started to drink the soup.

Fire.

That soup was spicy hot!

I coughed a bit, and Uncle Scrooge pulled away the soup from me so it wouldn't spill.

"Here. Not too much, mind you."

I greedily drank the water Uncle Scrooge gave me, but it wasn't even half a cup. As soon as I drank it though, I realized that the water was a bad idea. Now I felt like throwing up...

"Come on, Louie. Have the rest of the soup." Uncle Scrooge said, stopping me from going for the throw-up bucket.

Even though I knew how spicy it was, I was a little too out of it to refuse. So, I took it from Uncle Scrooge and just guzzled it down. Surprisingly, my stomach felt better after I drank it, and my headache wasn't so bad, either.

"What's in that stuff?" I asked, and I was surprised that my throat sounded like normal again.

"Jest some o' my special ingredients," Uncle Scrooge chuckled, "I created this in my Yukon days, with a wee bit of inspiration from my favorite Scottish meals. Had to get over a cold fast back then, especially during winter."

I leaned back against the couch again. Man, that felt good.

Uncle Scrooge started talking more about the troubles of the Yukon, and I closed my eyes while listening to him.

"Louie."

"Hm?" I asked, waking up. When did I fall asleep?

"Louie, you up lad?"

"Yeah, I'm up, I'm up," I said, yawning. I still felt sore all over, and my headache was back, but at least my voice wasn't hurting as much as it was before.

I looked up to see Scrooge sitting next to me in practically the same spot as before. The only difference was that the clock on the mantlepiece said it had been about an hour since my brothers left for school.

"I'm sorry m'lad, but I need to go to the office." Uncle Scrooge said, "And you're gonna hafta come with me, since Launchpad isnae able ta take care of you today."

"Huh?" I stared at him. I'm pretty sure it was the cold, but it was like I couldn't understand him even though I heard every word he said.

"Come on, get up." Uncle Scrooge coaxed me, "I'll make you some more soup at the Moneybin."

The Moneybin?

I've heard of that place. That's where the richest duck in the world keeps his money...Hang on. Isn't the richest duck Uncle Scrooge?

Wait a second. How come we've been with Uncle Scrooge for days and haven't seen the Moneybin yet?

The thought of seeing all the money that would be in a Moneybin helped me to get up and put on my shoes. Uncle Scrooge helped me put on my coat, and he let me lean on him a little as he led the way to the limo.

Man, I was _so_ thankful that we wouldn't be walking today.

Uncle Scrooge talked to me as he sat me down in the car. I'm not sure what he said exactly, but it sounded encouraging. I did hear "there's a good lad", so I hope that whatever he said wasn't that important.

I think I started to fall asleep on his shoulder as Launchpad drove the car. Which was really amazing since I'm sure Launchpad was driving as erratically as usual. I didn't even see where Launchpad came from, actually. Bits and pieces of what he said and what Uncle Scrooge said came into my head, but it was like watching a half-understood dream. Something about Launchpad volunteering somewhere and wishing he could stay with us, or something.

Actually, it took me a long time to realize when I wasn't in the car anymore, and that Uncle Scrooge was leading me to an elevator. I think I fell asleep standing up as we were in the elevator, because suddenly I realized that I was lying down on a giant couch.

"Huh? Where am I?" I asked the ceiling.

"Awake, Louie?" Uncle Scrooge asked, and I turned my head to see him sitting at a desk a few feet away from me, papers stacked high on one side of the desk and low on the other.

"Yer in me Moneybin," Uncle Scrooge continued without waiting for me to answer, "Sorry m'lad, but I couldn't leave you at home. Here, have some more of me soup. It'll do you good."

He pointed at the coffee table in front of me, where a pot of soup was waiting with a spoon.

"It works even better cold than it does hot." Uncle Scrooge explained, as I reached forward and started eating.

I really did feel a lot better after the soup, but I still felt like sleeping for the next five hours. That changed though, when I turned my head and saw the giant vault that was facing Scrooge's desk.

"Woah!" I said. I couldn't see any gold from here, but the vault door was open, and it looked really bright inside. Was that gold? I strained my head over the arm of the couch, intent on trying to get a peek inside...

 _Bang!_

"Ouch!"

Uncle Scrooge chuckled, and without even looking up from his paperwork, "Need any help getting up, Louie?"

"N-no thanks, I think I'm good," I said, crawling back onto the couch. Did I seriously just fall off the couch? Honestly, it felt so good to lie back down, but I really wanted to see...

"Uncle Scrooge, can I see inside?"

"Only a quick peek. Then I want ya to go back ta sleep."

Well, I could agree to that.

Using all the strength I could muster, I carefully sat up on the couch and placed all my strength on my two feet. After standing up, I weakly walked over to the vault and peered inside.

 _Wow._

I had never seen so much gold in my life! It was literally shining in my face. The vault door led to some kind of balcony and a diving board, but there was so much money that it was only a few feet below the balcony. On the edge of the balcony was even a hatstand, with a top hat and crown on it, and for some reason there was even a sword leaning against it.

The money, though, was what really held my attention. I wanted to try counting it, but I was too tired to stand anymore, so I sat down against the vault door.

"Careful, lad. Don't overdo it," Scrooge said.

I didn't answer him. I just continued to stare at the money. Then I looked up, and saw the reflections of light the money was sending onto the ceiling. That was really...very beautiful...

"Come on now, up we go!"

Why was Uncle Scrooge here? Wasn't he at his desk a moment ago? Eh-that didn't really matter, did it?

Uncle Scrooge practically lifted me up so that I was standing again, then walked me back to the couch. I didn't argue when he told me to lie down again, and I kind of liked the feeling of being tucked in when he pulled a blanket over me.

Uncle Scrooge walked back to his desk and started working again, writing on papers and answering the phone and stuff, and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep watching him while he was working.

...

I couldn't tell the time when I woke up again, since there weren't any large windows in the office and I didn't have my watch on, but the first thing I saw was that on the coffee table there was another pot of soup for me. The second thing I saw was a letter.

I sat up and drank the whole pot before even looking at the letter. Which was surprisingly easy to read, even though it was in cursive. I say this because Uncle Donald's cursive is so bad that most of the time people think he's writing in Latin or something. Which makes it really easy to pretend we can't read it whenever we think it has some kind of instructions on it...Anyway, to get back on track, I read the letter.

 _Louie-_

 _In a board meeting. Be back as soon as I can. Drink the soup and get plenty of rest._

 _Your Uncle,_

 _$crooge_

I laid down again. That soup was really starting to grow on me. Maybe I was feeling a little better, but I kind of wished for seconds.

 _Clunk._

What was that? I sat up.

 _Tinkle tinkle._

Where were those noises coming from? Maybe it's because I had nothing else to do, but I sat up on the couch to listen better.

"Be careful with those screws, Burger. Go quietly so's no one hears us."

I know that voice! The Beagle Boys!

Even though I felt really comfortable sitting on the couch with a stomach full of soup, I jumped up and listened carefully. Where were the sounds coming from?

 _Clank._ I looked towards the corner of the large office, and finally figured it out. The sound was coming from the vents! Specifically, the vent in the corner with the screws that were unscrewing from the inside.

I had to act quickly. I ran to the money vault and grabbed the sword that was leaning against the hatstand. It was heavier that I thought it would be, or maybe I was still weak from being sick, so I ended up half-dragging it back to the corner of the room where the air vent was. I swung it as hard as I could up against the vent-

"OUCH! Knock it off!" A Beagle boy shouted, as I raised the sword for another hit.

"Burger, hurry it up already!"

"I'm trying, Bigtime, but there's a kid in the way! It's one of Scrooge's nephews!"

"Just open the vent already!"

I hit the vent again with the sword, but that's about when I realized that I didn't have the strength for a fourth time. Burger the Beagle Boy had already managed to knock the screws out from the vents, and with just a little pushing the front of the vent came off and the Beagle Boy tumbled right out.

"Hurry up and tie up the kid!" The next Beagle in line said, "Then we can concentrate on robbing Scrooge of all his money!"

I tried lifting the sword one more time, but it was so heavy that it fell completely out of my hands. Since I couldn't even lift it, I decided to just abandon it on the floor. Sorry, Uncle Scrooge.

"Heh heh, be a good little nephew and sit still for a while!" One of the Beagles said.

"No!" I said, speaking for the first time in a while. Hmm. My voice definitely sounded better, but it still wasn't back to normal.

The Beagles started walking towards me, so I ran to Scrooge's desk and grabbed a bunch of random papers. It didn't matter what they were, I was only using them as a distraction! Unfortunately, throwing papers up into the air didn't work the same way that throwing dust does, and throwing papers definitely can't double as a smoke screen. I was really lucky when some of the folders landed right on the nearest Beagle's face, and double lucky when another Beagle tripped on some fallen papers like a banana peel.

The distraction gave me enough time to run to the open vault door.

At first, I thought that since these guys were burglars I should just close the vault and twist the combination to lock it. Then I realized that I would be stuck in the same room as the Beagle Boys if I did that. Basically, I had a choice: run out of the room right now and call for help, risking the chance that the Beagle Boys could escape with some of Scrooge's money, or close Scrooge's vault to stop these crooks from stealing. So I did the only thing I could think of-I closed the vault door and locked it. But from the inside.

And now I was locked inside the Moneybin. Didn't see this happening when I woke up this morning.

If I listened quietly, I could hear some banging on the other side of the door. Come to think of it, if the Beagle Boys came up through the vents, did they honestly expect the vault door to be open for them, or were they planning to saw through it or something?

Suddenly, I didn't like being so close to the vault door. The balcony I was on had a diving board, but it also had a small ladder on the side. I climbed down the ladder for about two feet and found myself standing on the gold coins. I kind of hoped that Uncle Scrooge didn't mind me standing on his money, but it wasn't like I had a choice, and anyway the ladder was there.

I walked across the coins to get as far away from the vault door as possible. I mean, there was always a chance the Beagle Boys had explosives or something with them, right? I was starting to get really tired by now, but I hid behind a giant mound of green paper near the far corner of the Moneybin.

After finding the perfect hiding spot, I decided to lie down. I hadn't realized just how tired I was. It wouldn't hurt to lie down for a while, right? After a quick rest, I could always think up a way to prevent the Beagle Boys from stealing money, or a way to set off some kind of alarm. Once Uncle Scrooge knew those turkeys were here, he would be able to deal with them.

Weird. Who knew lying on top of all these bills would be so comfortable? Oh, this was a stack of $10,000 bills. No wonder, I guess $10,000 bills would definitely be more comfortable than $100 bills or $1 bills...

"Louie! Are ya all right, lad?"

Uncle Scrooge wouldn't stop shaking me, so I had to open my eyes. Did I just take a nap?

"Yeah, I'm all right," I said, wiping a $10,000 bill off my forehead, "What's wrong?"

Uncle Scrooge gave a huge sigh of relief, and then grabbed me by the shoulders.

"Don't you _ever_ do that again! Do ya realize how badly you scared me?"

"Huh?" I asked, bleary eyed.

"You locked yerself in me vault!" Uncle Scrooge said, "Do you know how worried I was? What if ye got buried, lad? Or worse? You're lucky you moved so many coins around, or I might not have found ye so fast."

"What do you-huh?" I asked.

Uncle Scrooge sighed again, this time almost in defeat, and started pulling me up on my feet.

"Come on, lad. Let's get back to the office." He said, leading me away.

"Uncle Scrooge, the Beagle Boys!" I said, finally remembering.

"Yes yes, I know," Uncle Scrooge said, "Already on their way ta the police station. Really lad, ya didn't have ta lock yourself in me bin. They wouldnae got away with anything even if they _did_ get in."

"Oh, okay." I said, too tired to argue.

Uncle Scrooge followed me up the short ladder and herded me back to the couch in the office. The vent was already properly back to normal with all the screws on, but for some reason the sword I had dropped was still where I left it on the floor. Uncle Scrooge forced me to lie down instead of sit on the couch.

"Stay here. I'm gonna make you another pot of me soup, and I want you ta sleep as much as you can." He said.

"Uncle Scrooge," I asked as he started walking towards the office door, "Are you going to leave the vault open again?"

"Aye. It's perfectly safe, now that I know how the Beagle Boys got in." Uncle Scrooge said, "Besides, I can always trust me family around my money. Sit tight, lad. We'll have that cold gone before tomorrow."

So I laid back down on the couch, content to watch the furniture while waiting for him to come back. Most of the light came from the open vault door, so I turned my head towards the inside of the couch and stared at the couch pattern for a while before I closed my eyes. I only opened them again when Uncle Scrooge told me the soup was ready, and after drinking it all, I think I fell right back to sleep.

"You'll be right as rain soon enough, me boy," Uncle Scrooge chuckled, rubbing my head, and that was the last thing I knew for a while.

I woke up hours later to find out that Launchpad and my brothers were in the room with us, playing around with the sword I had left on the ground while Scrooge continued to work at his desk. That was when I realized that I was really feeling a whole lot better. It didn't stop me from gulping down Uncle Scrooge's fiery soup again when he handed me another bowl, though.


	7. Triple Trouble

_Thanks for the inspiration, GuestGirl!_

CHAPTER SEVEN

"Uncle Scrooge, do we really have to go?" I asked.

Although, since Uncle Scrooge had just closed the front door, it was probably too late to stay home now.

"It's just a boring old speech, right?" Dewey asked as we started walking to the sidewalk.

"Nonsense! This is ta celebrate the founding of Duckburg. And I did a lot ta make this city what it is today, so you are _all_ going ta be there!" Uncle Scrooge said.

"I heard that more than half the town is gonna be there." Launchpad said, waxing a helicopter in the driveway. Come to think of it, what was a helicopter doing in the driveway? "Too bad I've gotta jet, or I'd be there too!"

"Sounds like it _could_ be fun." Huey said.

"If by 'fun' you mean boring." Dewey mumbled.

"Oh, and heads up Mr. McD," Launchpad said, "Word on the street is, Magica the witch lady is going to be there too."

Uncle Scrooge frowned. "Magica? Yek! Why, I'll be a sitting duck for her spells while I give me speech!"

"Is Magica the lady you told us about Louie? The one who wants Uncle Scrooge's dime?" Huey asked as we started walking again.

"Yup, that's her." I said.

"Err, now, Huey and Dewey, you boys run ahead and make sure you get good seats. There's something I just realized I have ta do before the speech." Uncle Scrooge said, stopping to look up and down the street.

"Alright, Uncle Scrooge." We all looked at Uncle Scrooge suspiciously, but did as he said and kept on walking.

"Not you, Louie." Uncle Scrooge said, hooking my arm with his cane, "There's something I want ya to help me with. It won't take a wee portion of yer time."

My brothers and I all shrugged at each other, and then Huey and Dewey left ahead of us.

"Alright," I asked as soon as they were too far away to hear me, "What's up?"

"I need you ta help me, lad." Uncle Scrooge whispered, drawing me in closer with his cane, "During the speech, I want you ta take care of me old number one."

"Number one?" I asked.

"Me dime." Uncle Scrooge said. With a surprisingly quick motion, he pulled off the string around his neck, the string that held the dime, and quickly placed it over my head. He did this so fast that I wasn't able to say anything.

"The first money I ever made. Keep it safe for me, will you?" He asked.

There was nothing else I could do other than tuck the dime under my clothes. "S-sure thing," I stammered.

"Good lad," He said, and with an uncle-like pat on my shoulder, he started walking down the sidewalk again.

When we finally reached the outdoor stage where the speech would take place, Uncle Scrooge immediately went to stand on the stage. But he was quickly joined by a strange duck I had never seen before, and didn't seem too happy about it.

I couldn't help but scan the crowd for Magica, but she wasn't around so I sat down between Dewey and Huey. Right away Dewey elbowed me and started whispering in my ear.

"That's Flinthard Glomgold," He whispered, pointing at the strange duck who was arguing with Uncle Scrooge, "I met him yesterday when Uncle Scrooge took me to Egypt. He's rich like Uncle Scrooge, but not as rich, and he's definitely not very nice."

"Got it," I whispered back.

Suddenly, Huey elbowed me on my other side. "Do you guys see what I see?" He whispered, pointing to the right of the stage.

We gulped. There, half-hidden by the crowd but wearing distinctive orange shirts, were-

"The Beagle Boys!"

Obviously, the three of them were up to no good.

Quietly, we left our seats and snuck up to that part of the stage. We didn't even need to talk to each other to plan it out as we decided to try to sneak up on them from behind.

"...Then while everyone is watching the speech, we'll dynamite our way in and steal Scrooge's gold!" The Beagles chuckled quietly to themselves.

"Looks like we'd better keep an eye on these guys," Huey mumbled.

"Agreed." Dewey and I said at the same time.

"And now, it's time to start the speech!" An announcer said, standing up on the stage and apparently ignoring the fact that Uncle Scrooge and Glomgold were still up on stage arguing together, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Scrooge McDuck!"

There was a giant round of applause, and Scrooge came forward to the podium.

"A-heh-hem," He cleared his throat, "I want to thank all of you for coming here today-"

"Hold on, I object!" Glomgold said, interrupting, "This old sack isn't worth being praised! Why, I've done more for this city than he ever has!"

"You can't object a speech, Glomgold!" Scrooge argued, "Now as I was saying-"

"No, listen to _me_ , everyone!" Glomgold said, bumping Uncle Scrooge aside, "This old clown may have helped create the city, sure. He might have planned a few things and made a few streets. But he isn't helping now! I'm the one who's making Duckburg rich! Why, just take my new line of hovercrafts, for example. Glomgold Industries is clearly the voice of the future!"

"You can unveil yer new line of cheaply made products some other time," Uncle Scrooge said, taking back the podium, "Right now, the people want to hear about the founding of their city!"

"Oh? Are ye so sure of that, Scrooge?" Glomgold asked, "I happen to have an example of my hovercars right here!"

He pressed a button on a remote, and a round car suddenly floated down from the sky onto the stage. It didn't have any wheels, and it didn't have a roof either. It would have been cooler if it weren't painted completely grey.

"See?" Glomgold asked, "This here is the voice of the future! Look at this flying technology!" He pressed another button on the remote, and suddenly the hovercar pointed straight up into the air. The bottom was very smooth, almost like a mirror.

But if there weren't wheels or anything on the bottom, how exactly could it fly?

"This is the first hovercar out of a thousand. The rest are all in me factory downtown." Glomgold explained.

At that moment, I clearly saw a light go off in the Beagle Boy's heads.

"Boys, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" One of the Beagles asked.

"We've _got_ to get our hands on that remote!" Another answered.

Along with Huey and Dewey, I groaned big time.

"We've got to stop them!" I whispered.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

Suddenly, there was a giant pink _poof!_ of smoke. As soon as I turned to look, I groaned again. "Oh no!" I said.

It was Magica deSpell, floating over the heads of the people in the crowd.

Her laughter turned to coughing. "What is with pink cloud? That is last time I buy from cheap Witch Dollar Store!" She mumbled, chasing away the smoke.

"Magica!" Uncle Scrooge shouted.

"Scrooge!" She answered, "I am here for your number one dime, the first dime you ever made! Be a good duck and hand it over, okay?"

"Never!" He shouted, his hand automatically clutching his heart even though the dime wasn't actually there.

"Then we will do this the hard way!" Magica shouted, raising her arms, "I have new magic spell! Once I use it, you will hand over dime to me...willingly!"

"HEY! STOP THOSE CROOKS!" Glomgold shouted.

"GOT IT, BANKJOB!"

Startled, I turned around. While we were occupied with Magica, it seems the Beagle Boys took the time to steal the remote from Glomgold and were currently piling into the hovercraft.

"Scrooge's money, here we come!"

"Not if we can help it!" Dewey shouted, "Come on!"

Things were getting kind of confusing, but I joined followed my brothers as we chased after the Beagles Boys.

"How are we gonna stop those guys? They have a hovercar!" Huey asked.

"She's casting a spell! RUN FOR IT!" Someone behind us called.

Luckily we weren't still there, but even while running we could hear Magica's voice behind us:

" _Citizens, you pests,_

 _Who lie safe and sound,_

 _I command you to detest_

 _Anything that is round!_ "

"Anything round?" Huey said, running up to me, " _Dimes_ are round! Uncle Scrooge is in trouble!"

"He's also in trouble if the Beagle Boys get into his Moneybin!" Dewey shouted, "Let's take care of them first!"

Take care of them? How? They were flying ahead of us, and we were just running!

"Ack! How do you pilot this thing?!" One of the Beagle Boys shouted as the hovercar did an inside-out loop-de-loop.

"Dewey! The remote!" Huey shouted, and just as I was going to ask what he was talking about, Dewey jumped up and grabbed something that had fallen from the sky.

"Got it!" He shouted triumphantly.

"Burger! You dropped the remote!" I heard one of the Beagles say as the hovercar zig-zagged above us.

"Quick, Dewey!" I shouted, "Bring them back!"

"I'm trying, but I think they've got another steering wheel!" Dewey said, pressing buttons on the remote.

"It came off, it came off!" One of the Beagles shouted, and I think I saw a steering wheel fall out of the hovercar and land on the roof of one of the buildings nearby.

"Hit the brakes! Stop the engine!"

"I'm trying, but they're stuck! And the button to turn it off isn't working, neither!"

...What kind of rotten cheapskate designed that stupid thing? It was falling apart in the air!

The whole time this was happening, Dewey was pressing buttons on the remote. This plus whatever the Beagle Boys were doing in the air meant that the hovercar was doing all kinds of acrobatics, but it wasn't really going anywhere. Which was kind of nice, because it meant that we could stop running.

Suddenly, the hovercar turned toward a nearby three-story building that had a large pink donut with sprinkles on top.

"Oh no!" Dewey cried, and since it was all I could do, I stood there with Huey and just stared as the hovercar crashed into the giant donut.

 _Bang!_

The hovercar bounced right off the donut and landed on the roof of the building. Thankfully, we were standing far enough away to see the roof. The front end of the hovercar was crumpled like a tin can, but surprisingly the donut seemed fine. Although, it was tilted just a little.

"Quick, boys! Let's get out of here!" Burger Beagle shouted, jumping off the car.

For some reason, he headed straight for the donut.

"Not now, Burger! It ain't even real!" The other two Beagle boys shouted, and both of them ran out of the car to grab their brother.

"Dewey, quick! The remote!" Huey shouted.

"Got it!" Dewey replied, and he pressed a few buttons.

Instantly the hovercar bucked and clunked, and within seconds it took to the air.

"Oops!" Dewey said, a second too late, because the hovercar had backed straight into the donut again.

This time, it crashed right into the center of the donut hole. And stayed there, stuck. Which was a bad thing, because that meant it was just over the heads of the three Beagle Boys, two of which were trying to get Burger away from what he apparently thought was real food.

"Dewey, do you want to give it _back_ to them?" I asked.

"Quit it, guys! I've got this!" Dewey said.

He pressed something on the remote again, and the hovercraft took to the air-but it took the donut up with it!

"NOOO!" Burger yelled, just barely restrained by his brothers from jumping off the side of the building after the flying donut.

"Give me that!" Huey shouted, and he wrestled the remote away from Dewey, "I'll get that donut off!"

"Huey, wait!" I shouted, but it was too late. With the press of a few buttons, Huey crashed the hovercar into the ground.

And just as I thought, the donut went flying.

Leaping and bounding, it rolled downhill toward where Uncle Scrooge and half of Duckburg were.

"Come on, we've got to stop it before anyone gets hurt!" Dewey shouted, starting to run after the donut.

"But what about the Beagle Boys?" Huey called out.

"Let the police handle them!" Dewey responded, "They can't rob Uncle Scrooge's Moneybin from the top of the Duckie Donut Headquarters!"

"How are we going to stop it?" I shouted as we ran back down.

Suddenly, I remembered that Magica was down there too. And she was still looking for Uncle Scrooge's dime, which was still around my neck...

We made it back to the stage. I was worried that the giant rolling donut would hurt someone, but it must have bounced up the backside of the stage when I wasn't looking, because now it was nicely lying on the stage with the podium in the center of the donut. Kinda like that horseshoe game where you toss a horseshoe and try to get it around a stake in the ground.

"Uh oh," Huey said, looking at the crowd, "Do you guys think something is wrong here?"

The entire crowd was glaring at the stage. Wait, not the stage. They were glaring at the donut!

"It's _round._ " Uncle Scrooge said, seemingly talking to himself, "Somebody take it away! Toss it in the pile!"

"I'm not touching it!" "It looks disgusting!" "That thing's huge!" "Gross!"

The people in the audience even backed away a little as they spoke.

"Boys, what are you doing?" Uncle Scrooge said, suddenly turning to look at us, "Take anything round and toss it in the pile! Hurry!"

"Pile? What pile?" I asked.

"The one over there!"

But that last voice wasn't Uncle Scrooge's. It was Magica's voice! The witch was floating in the air just behind the opposite corner of the stage.

Magica pointed with her finger towards Duckburg Park, where there was a nice, neat pile of round junk sitting by the park entrance. I don't know how everyone managed to make such a large pile during the five minutes we were gone chasing the Beagle Boys, especially since it looked like no one had even moved while we were gone.

"Buttons and watches, glasses and earrings!" Glomgold said, standing there forgotten next to Uncle Scrooge on the stage, as far away from the donut as possible, "Anything round goes in the pile!"

"Hurry, lads! Or no tv for a week!" Uncle Scrooge said.

We really didn't have a choice, so we took out whatever coins were in our pocket. Of course, I kept Uncle Scrooge's dime. We didn't want to walk all the way over to the pile, so we just kind of tossed the money as far as we could. They fell on the ground much closer to the stage than the park, but no one stepped forward to pick them up.

Actually, it was the first time I had ever seen people move to get _away_ from money. Talk about weird.

"Uncle Scrooge, are you working with Magica?" I asked him, "She's a witch!"

"Aye, but she promised ta take away anything round!" Uncle Scrooge said.

"I will, for sure!" Magica said, "As long as I get what I want, I will be helping you get rid of all the ugly round things! Scrooge, are you _sure_ you tossed out all things round?"

"Of course I'm sure! I emptied me pockets of all the change I have!" Uncle Scrooge said, sounding a little offended.

"Uncle Scrooge, she wants your lucky dime!" Dewey shouted.

"You can't give it to her, Uncle Scrooge!" Huey called out.

"Me dime?" Uncle Scrooge said, looking confused.

"Eh, one of ze problems with my spell. Round things are not important anymore, so Scrooge doesn't remember dime. Ah, well." Magica said.

"But you don't have it yet, right?" Huey said, "That's why you made _everyone_ hate round things! So that someone will find the dime for you!"

"Cheeky little duck, aren't you? I see what problem is," Magica said, "You three were not hit by my spell!"

She raised her hands and began to speak- _"Citizens-"_

"No!" Dewey and I shouted at the same time.

"The donut!" Huey shouted, "You can't do a spell before getting rid of the donut! No one likes it there!"

Huey, you're a genius! You thought of the only thing that could distract her!

"Hm, you may be right." Magica said, looking at the face of the angry mob that really did not like the giant donut on the stage. They might even start to riot if she didn't take care of it soon. "Very well. I will make this donut disappear!"

She raised her hands once again, aiming it at the donut this time.

As soon as she did, Huey pulled out the remote for Glomgold's hovercar and pressed a few buttons. Sputtering and zig-zagging, it took the car a few seconds to fly up from where we had left it on the street all the way to the stage.

Then, with a few lucky presses of the button, he managed to land it right-side up just behind the stage, out of Magica's sight.

"There!" Magica said as the giant donut disappeared, "Is done! Now to put spell on you three!"

She turned towards us and began the spell, and I snatched the remote out of Huey's hands.

"My turn!" I shouted, just as Magica finished and the magic started flying towards us.

I pressed the button on the remote, and the hovercar flew sideways in front of us. It worked! The spell didn't hit us at all, because the hovercar blocked it!

"Nice work, Louie!" Huey said as I landed the hovercar on the stage.

But that wasn't the only reason I had used the hovercar. Did my plan work?

"No, no, no!" Magica shouted, her hands on her head.

Yes, yes yes! It worked!

"Louie, get ready to block her again!" Dewey shouted.

"No need, bros." I smirked.

"Round, round! Why is it round?" Magica shouted.

"Huh?" Dewey asked.

"That!" Magica said, pointing to the hovercar, "It's round! So ugly, so disgusting, so...so...terrible!"

"Oh wow, she got hit by her own ray!" Dewey said.

"The bottom of the hoverboard must have reflected the curse back on herself!" Huey remarked, "Good thinking, Louie!"

"I can't believe I ever made anything so ugly!" Glomgold suddenly said, spitting on the hovercar.

Oh, I forgot about him. So he was still standing on the stage.

"Get rid of it, get rid of it!" Magica shouted to no one in particular. Did she forget that she has magic?

I don't know if he heard Magica or just didn't like it himself, but Glomgold suddenly started stomping on the hovercar with his bare feet.

"That'll teach ya!" He shouted, which didn't make any sense. But it did seem to work, since the hovercar started to collapse more and more with every kick. "I'm going ta go down to my factory and destroy every single one of you personally!" Glomgold shouted, "Better yet, I'll call the factory and have someone else do it!"

"Ooookay," Huey said, turning to look away from the crazy guy with the kilt, "So, now what?"

"We get rid of Magica and get everyone back to normal," I said.

"How are we going to do that?" Dewey asked.

"We could use something round." Huey suggested.

"But no one around here _has_ anything round!" Dewey said.

"I do!" I said, pulling the dime off from around my neck, "Yo, Magica! You want this?"

I dared to take a step forward, revealing the dime and even letting it dangle on the necklace for her viewing pleasure.

"No! Get it away!" The witch lady said, covering her eyes and taking a step back, even though she was floating in mid-air.

"But I thought for sure you wanted this," I said, stepping closer.

"No, take it away! I'll do anything!"

"Anything?" I asked.

"Yes yes, I'll do anything!" Magica said.

"Then reverse the spell you put on the town!" I shouted.

"Alright, alright!" Magica said, putting out her hands, " _Reverse the curse!_ "

Surprisingly, that was enough for the magic to work. For a second there was a flash of light, and everyone who had been standing in the audience blinked their eyes. Then, as if everyone had the same idea at the same time, they all scrambled towards the pile of junk.

"Great job, Louie!" Uncle Scrooge said. Rushing forward, he grabbed the dime out of my hands and held it up close to Magica.

"See this?" He shouted, sticking his dime as close as he could to her face, "It's round!"

"Eeek! Get it away!" She shouted.

"No, _you_ get away!" Uncle Scrooge shouted, "Leave this town, and don't come back!"

"EEEEEEEE!" The witch screamed, and suddenly she raised her arms, gathered smoke and _poof!_ She was gone!

"You think she'll be back?" I asked.

"Of course she will." Uncle Scrooge said, "But not until her own spell wears off, heh heh!"

"Um, Louie? Since when did you start keeping a coin around your neck?" Huey asked.

"It's not actually mine," I said.

"It's mine." Uncle Scrooge said, "Me old number one. Thank ye for looking after it, Louie."

Uncle Scrooge then started to rub my head, which was kinda annoying.

"You mean the dime that Magica was after?" Dewey asked, "You scared her off with the very dime she _wanted_?"

"Um, yes?" I said.

Huey and Dewey started laughing, and I couldn't help but join them.

"Come on lads," Uncle Scrooge said, "Let's go home. They'll have ta postpone the speech for another day, anyway."

So, we headed home. Along the way I saw that Glomgold guy angrily jumping up and down, complaining about how all his hovercars were now destroyed. Oh, and we passed a police car that had the Beagle Boys in the backseat.

Actually, going to the speech today wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.


	8. Lost!

_Thanks, Galquesta!_

CHAPTER EIGHT

It happened fast. One minute I was sitting in the living room of Uncle Scrooge's mansion, enjoying the air conditioning, playing on my old handheld and casually drinking ice cold soda, and five minutes later I was lost and freezing in a snowstorm.

For the record, I blame Huey.

He's the one who yanked me out into the backyard while screaming about some invention that Gyro made and how Uncle Scrooge wasn't around. I don't know Gyro-haven't met him yet-but I guess he's an inventor?

So yeah, I was really confused when Huey pulled me into the backyard and pointed at some strange guy holding a potato.

Yup. A potato.

I don't know who this guy was, but he definitely didn't belong in the backyard. Aside from that obvious statement, Dewey was trying to hold him down by the waist, which wasn't working. It actually looked like Dewey was trying to give the guy a really awkward bear hug.

"Louie, he wants to steal the tomato keep-fresh machine!" Dewey shouted at me, "Hurry! Think of something!"

That was when I got it. They wanted me to create a plan for them. I'm good at that.

But seriously, was this tomato freshener really shaped like a potato? And why would anyone even want to steal an invention for tomatoes, anyway?

"Oh no! He's doing it again!" Huey shouted, as the stranger twisted the potato, "Dewey, hold on!"

Suddenly, Dewey and the stranger disappeared into thin air!

"Where'd they go?" I shouted, but the words were barely out of my mouth when they reappeared on the other side of the backyard.

"What the-?" I began, but Huey interrupted me.

"There's no time for questions!" He shouted, "Think of a way to get that thing back!"

So naturally, I came up with one of my spur-of-the-moment plans. It was also one of my more simple ones. With just one word to Huey ("Attack!"), we both came crashing down on the guy and pinned him to the ground. So, now there were three ducks hanging onto this guy.

"Don't let him do it again!" Dewey shouted, but the burgler or whatever he was had twisted the potato again.

Instantly, we weren't in the backyard anymore. We were surrounded by a jungle!

"What the-?" Dewey cried out.

All of a sudden the jungle disappeared, and we were in the desert!

"What's going on?" Huey asked.

Well, at least we weren't falling through the sky.

Dang it, not cool. As soon as I thought about it, we started falling from the sky!

"Ahhhhh!" Dewey shouted, "I wish we were safe at home!"

I blinked, and we were on the ground again, but in the woods this time. They looked a lot like the woods at Uncle Donald's house.

Then, we weren't there anymore. This time I decided to close my eyes, and just focus on holding on through this wild ride.

Somebody please, make it stop!

"Now we're at the beach!" Huey shouted.

Great. What's next? Were we going to travel all around the world now? Maybe I should keep my eyes open in case we flew to the Klondike. I guess I was getting kind of interested in it because Uncle Scrooge kept on telling us stories.

That was when cold wind hit my face, so I opened my eyes. I couldn't see anything, and somehow my fingers slipped-basically, I accidentally let go. By the time I had finished falling or tumbling into the snow, my brothers and the thief were gone.

So that's how I ended up here, wherever this is, freezing. And I didn't even have a jacket on.

* * *

I started walking, hoping to at least keep warm until reaching a house or road or something. Hopefully I was going in the right direction. I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face because of all the snow.

I don't know how long it was, but it felt like forever until someone spoke to me.

"What in blazes are ya trying to do, kid? Freeze yourself to death?"

"N-n-n-n-no," I stuttered, looking left and right for the source of the voice, but I couldn't see past the shield of snow that kept coming down like rain.

"Here."

Suddenly I felt a little warmer. Someone had put a coat over my shoulders. The coat itself had snow inside it and was wet and cold, but at least it helped.

"Come with me, afore you get frostbite." The stranger said, and even though I couldn't see him, he grabbed me by the hand and started walking me forward, "My homestead isn't too far from here, but the blizzard is too tough for the dogs, so we'll have to walk. Don't let go, kid. If you do, I might never find you again."

"A-a-a-alright," I said.

"You're lucky I found you at all," the stranger said, "This is one of the roughest blizzards I've seen since I came up here."

From then on he was silent, but that didn't bother me. I was busy trying to put one foot in front of the other. I was cold, wet, hungry and sleepy, but for some reason when we finally entered the stranger's cabin, it was so warm inside that it felt like I was burning.

I'm not exactly sure what happened after that. I guess I felt so relieved to be out of the cold that I kind of conked out while the stranger was rubbing my arms, which he said was to warm me up or something.

When I woke up, I didn't know where I was. The bed I was on felt hard and scratchy, and the wall next to the bed was made up of logs. Then, just as suddenly as when you turn on a light, I remembered what had happened and sat up.

The strange duck who had saved me was poking at the fire, and he wore some very patched-up clothing with a coon-skin cap on his head. It all looked very old-fashioned, especially since everything in the cabin was old and half-broken. But at the same time, everything looked well taken care of. This guy was probably one of those people who like to live in the wilderness, so it wasn't like he could go to the store every time something broke.

We weren't alone, though. There were six or seven huskie dogs lounging around the small cabin, like the kind that pull sleds. They seemed happy enough to just lie there wherever, but one or two of them almost looked like pieces of furniture, especially the one that had a half-drunk cup of coffee perched on its back.

Then the duck who saved me turned around, and I saw his face for the first time. He looked kind of young to be out here alone, younger than Uncle Donald even. Actually, he kind of looked like Uncle Donald. I knew this duck lived here alone because the cabin only had one bed, and I was lying on it. Which kind of made me wonder where this duck slept last night.

"Feeling better?" The stranger asked.

I nodded. "Where am I?" I asked, sitting on the side of the bed.

"My homestead."

"How far are we from Duckburg?" Since it was snowing here, we must be pretty far.

"Duckburg? Never heard of it. How close is it to Dawson?"

"Dawson?" I asked.

"How could ye get here without knowing what Dawson is?" The stranger asked, "And what I'd really like to know is what you were doing out in the blizzard without even a coat ta wear. Did yer parents teach you anything about how to survive in the Klondike?"

"The Klondike?" I asked, "How'd I get there? I'm from Duckburg!"

That was when I remembered the weird invention. Didn't we start falling from the sky when I thought about falling from the sky? And didn't I get stuck here after I thought about the Klondike?

So the invention took you to wherever you thought about! _That's_ how I got here!

Wow, Uncle Scrooge will be pretty excited when he learns about this. That Gyro person had basically created a teleporter!

The stranger sighed, and picked up the coffee off of the dog-table. "Here, drink."

I took the cup. "Um, it's half-empty." I said.

"It's still warm, and I've only got one cup." The stranger said, "If you made it this far, surely you must be used ta sharing. When you finish it off, I'll pour you more."

Sharing the same cup? That sounded kind of gross. But I didn't want to insult the guy who saved my life, so I came up with an excuse.

"Um, I don't drink coffee." I said, "I'm just a kid."

"What does that have to do with anything?" The stranger said.

I didn't know how to answer that, so I just decided what the heck, why not? And I took my first sip of coffee.

It was really gritty, and really strong. I quickly put down the cup and started coughing towards the wall.

"Good!" The stranger said, sounding pleased, "You keep drinking your breakfast. I have a few more questions for ye when you're done."

After I forced myself to drink the rest of the cup, and the rest of the stuff the stranger poured into the cup after that, I felt much more better than before.

"Now then," the stranger said, "You should be more awake. Do you finally remember who you are, where you're from and how you got here?"

"I'm Louie Duck," I said, "I'm from Duckburg, and I got here by accident."

I thought of telling him that I got here because of an invention, but I wasn't sure if he would believe it.

"How could ye accidentally get lost in the snow?" The duck asked, "Nevermind. You've had a hard day, and you're lost. As soon as the blizzard dies down I'll take ye into town and see if anyone there knows yer parents."

"But my parent's aren't in town," I said, "I live with my uncle in Duckburg. He doesn't even know I'm gone! Hey mister, do you have a phone or something I can call him? He's probably really worried by now."

"Phone? What's a phone?" The duck asked.

"You know, a cell phone!" I said, "Nevermind, there's probably no service here anyway. But they probably have it in town!"

"Good, good." The duck said, poking the fire, "I'll get you back to your family as soon as I can. In the meantime, do ye know how to sew?"

"Huh?"

"I've a lot of clothes that need patching, and work that needs doing. Since you're stuck here until the weather changes, you don't mind doing a little labor, do you?"

"N-no, that's fine," I said, "But I don't know how to sew."

"Can you cook then?"

"I probably could if I tried..."

"Pan for gold?"

"No," I said.

"Good gracious, kid! It's no wonder you were out in the blizzard without the proper gear! What on earth are ya even _doing_ up here?"

"...I'm lost," I said.

"Aye, it's alright kid." The duck said, "I didnae mean ta yell. By the way, I don't think I ever introduced myself."

He stood up and walked two steps over to me, sticking his arm out for a handshake.

"The name's Scrooge McDuck." He said as I automatically returned the handshake, "It's a pleasure to make yer acquaintance, Louie."

I felt my hand grow numb, but the duck in front of me didn't notice.

"Now then," he said, taking his hand back, "I've a little project in mind that you can help me with-"

"What year is it?" I interrupted.

"Same year it was yesterday," the duck who said he was Scrooge told me, looking a little confused, "1899."

 _"What?_ " I lost my balance and went from sitting on the bed to hugging the floor.

"Are ye alright, kid?"

"Yeah, I'm just fine." I said, rubbing my head. Seriously, 1899? That couldn't be possible, right? This guy had to be some kind of Uncle Scrooge lookalike, messing with me!

Well, luckily, I happened to know a lot about my Uncle Scrooge.

"Um, Mr. McDuck sir," I said.

"You can just call me Scrooge."

"Scrooge." Wow, that was weird to say, "Do you, by any chance, remember the first di-I mean, the first money you ever made?"

"Such a strange question," he commented, poking the fire, "As a matter of fact, I _do_ remember. It was an American dime. I make it working as a shoe shiner back in Scotland-"

His voice got louder and his eyes started to shine as he told his story. When he poked the fire, the flames rose higher than before, almost as if they were a part of the story. When he got carried away, he jumped up onto the only chair in the room and stretched his arms up high above his head.

"...And so when I decided ta come to America, one thing led to another and I came here. Soon, I'm going to make my first million, and then..."

This was definitely, without a doubt, my Uncle Scrooge.

* * *

I decided not to even _try_ worrying about how to get home until the blizzard outside died down. If I could time travel here, I could (hopefully) time travel back. Even without the potato. Everyone back home probably knew by now that I was missing, and sooner or later Scrooge- _my_ Uncle Scrooge-would find a way to come get me, right? I just hoped they wouldn't get caught up in this snowstorm.

So for the next few days, I had to stay cooped up in this small cabin with Scrooge and the snow dogs. It was kind of fun, actually. Scrooge made me do all sorts of things, everything from making the coffee to patching old clothes.

"I learned sewing from Ma McDuck." He said as the needle in his hand moved back and forth across the fabric, "I was always fixing my sisters' dolls, and that includes their dresses! Ah, ya should have seen what I had ta work with. Matilda wasnae so bad, but Hortense! Now that child has a _temper_!"

It was definitely weird talking to Uncle Scrooge like this. It was almost like he was a totally different person-except he wasn't. And it was really hard to keep up with him sometimes, since he liked to jump around whenever he was excited. In a small, crowded cabin. I think the reason the roof was so tall was so he could stand on the chair or bed without worrying about hitting the ceiling.

After spending three days cooped up in the cabin, I woke up one morning to find that Scrooge had opened the cabin door.

"The storm has died down," he said as he poked his head out the door before stepping back inside and closing it, "Perfect! We'll head out for town after coffee."

He happily drank his half of the coffee and, while I was drinking my half, he got to work pulling the dogsled out of the house and depositing it somewhere outside. Then, after he told me to wear all the patched-up clothing I had sewn together, he brought the dogs out of the house to join the sled.

When he finally came back inside and put out the fire, he was chuckling happily to himself.

"Ah, it's a good day ta be outside!" He said, "Come now, Louie. We'd best be off while the weather is this good."

I stepped outside, and was greeted with a harsh wind and snow in my face.

"It's still snowing!" I said, startled.

"Aye, isn't the weather perfect?"

I really didn't get what he meant by that, but at least the clothes I had now worked in the cold. Scrooge taught me how to stand on the dogsled-there was a giant pile of something bundled in the seat, so we were both standing, with me in front and him behind-and with one word to the dogs, we left the cabin behind!

The snow really wasn't that bad, actually. I could see the mountains and forests around us as we traveled. There was almost too much of it!

Actually, I was kind of disappointed when we finally got to the town. Once the sled came to a stop, Scrooge left the dogs out in the street while he led the way into a building that was clearly the Saloon. I was surprised at that, since the Scrooge I know is really possessive about his stuff, but the streets were practically empty of everything except for snow.

That all changed when I walked behind him into the Saloon, though. So _this_ was where everybody was! The place was packed to the brim with all kinds of weird-looking people. Most of them were men, but there were a few girls too. I didn't see any kids at all.

"Hey, McDuck!" Someone shouted, "You've got a follower!"

"I know that," Scrooge said, stomping over to the bar. Was it my imagination, or did he suddenly get tougher looking?

"The kid's lost," Scrooge said, jumping up to sit in a barstool, "Found him in a snowstorm. Anyone hear of someone who lost their kid?"

"Haven't heard yet, but that was some blizzard. Might take a while for news to reach here. What'll it be?" The Bartender asked.

"Milk." Scrooge said, looking at me as I scrambled up into the seat next to him.

"And what'll the kid have?"

The entire Saloon burst into laughter.

"Really, McDuck. You always order milk. Why not try some of the stronger stuff once in a while?" The Bartender asked, laughing along with the rest of them.

"Because I want milk." Scrooge said, looking more and more cranky, "Give it ta the both of us."

"Alright, alright. Here's your milk, coming right up."

Within seconds, a glass of milk slid across the bar towards me, and then a second one went to Scrooge.

"Let me know as soon as you hear anything." Scrooge said, taking a sip of his drink.

"Of course," the Bartender said as I tried out the milk, "But you know, we can only tell you if you're in town. Why don't you tell us where you made your homestead? If we knew where your claim was-"

"No."

"Aw, it was worth a shot." The Bartender sighed.

I guzzled down the rest of my glass, watching as the people in the Saloon started teasing Scrooge. "You never gamble," "You don't drink," "Why don't you join us sometime for a friendly game?" But Uncle Scrooge was just as stubborn as always.

"I'm not gonna waste me money on that kind of stuff," he said. Then he grabbed my empty glass and held it sternly in front of him. "Refill."

The bartender dutifully refilled my glass of milk, and Scrooge passed it back to me.

"I'll bet we could get ya to join us if Goldie were here," one of the Saloon occupants said.

Scrooge didn't say anything to that, but I think I saw him blush.

"Aye, she's right purty, that gal." Someone sighed, and then pretty much everyone in the room nodded their heads and were quiet.

Then Scrooge raised his glass of milk.

"To Goldie!" He said, and everyone else raised what they were drinking, "To Goldie!" They said together.

Everyone raised their heads and were about to down whatever their drink was, when someone slammed open the Saloon doors. Almost everyone was startled by it, and their drinks went on their heads instead of into their mouths. Thankfully, Scrooge and I had been about to drink normally, so our milk didn't go flying.

"There ya are!" A voice shouted, and in walked Uncle Scrooge.

Not the Scrooge sitting next to me, but my own top hat wearing, cane carrying Uncle Scrooge! And then, as if to really tell me that this was who I thought it was, Huey and Dewey were right behind him!

"Louie! I've been worried sick!" Uncle Scrooge practically shouted, stomping towards me with a concerned look on his face.

"Uncle S-" I started to say, but then I realized I couldn't say his name while the younger him was next to me.

"This your family?" Scrooge said, pointing at Uncle Scrooge with his thumb.

I nodded my head as I set my milk down on the bar, then slid out of my seat and ran to Uncle Scrooge.

"Louie!" "We missed you!" My brothers cried out, hugging me.

Suddenly Uncle Scrooge straightened up, and I turned around to see that Younger Scrooge was sizing up his older self.

"I found this kid in the middle of a blizzard, with no proper equipment." He said, getting off his barstool, "If you're his family, how could ye let that happen?"

"That's none of your business!" Uncle Scrooge shouted, "I'll have you know I searched high and low for the lad. And I thank you for taking care of him!"

Even though it was a thank-you, it sounded more like the challenge to a fight.

"Oh?" Young Scrooge said, "Well next time, you do the taking-care! Do ya know how close ta death he was? I had ta make a new coat for him out of my hard-earned scraps! You should be ashamed of yerself!"

Actually, I was the one who made the coat.

Not that I would dare say that right now. The two McDucks were facing each other, both in the same fighting stance, and I started to seriously wonder if Uncle Scrooge was going to do battle with himself.

"Yeah?" Uncle Scrooge said, "Well, I'll bet next you'll be demanding compensation!"

"And why shouldn't I?" Scrooge argued, "It's yer own fault this happened!"

"Fine!" Uncle Scrooge said, tossing something small at his younger self. Younger Scrooge caught it in both hands. "Use this!"

"Wha? This is too much!" He said, staring at his hands, "Why, a nugget this size-"

"Toss in yer coonskin cap then," Uncle Scrooge said, "And we'll call it even."

Young Scrooge scowled, but took the cap off his head and tossed it at himself, even though they were close enough to hug each other.

"Right," Young Scrooge said, and he pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it to me, "This is yer salary, in return for your hard work. Fair and square."

I caught the penny using both hands.

"Well then, now that we're done here, we'd best be going." Uncle Scrooge said, "Come along, lad."

"Bye, Louie!" Young Scrooge waved as Uncle Scrooge led me out of the Saloon with one hand on my back, "It was great meeting you, kid. Don't get lost in the snow again!"

The Saloon doors swung closed behind us, and we walked past Scrooge's dogsled down the street.

"So, what happened to that guy?" I asked.

"What guy? Oh, you mean the guy who had the tomato keep-fresh machine?" Dewey asked, "Right after you fell off, we showed up next to Uncle Scrooge as he was walking down the sidewalk."

"One good wonk of his cane, and _wham!_ The bad guy was knocked out cold!" Huey said.

"It took us a while ta figure out what happened to ya, Louie." Uncle Scrooge said, "Gyro's invention was made ta try and keep tomatos fresh by keeping them ripe. Who knew that the machine actually only worked because it listened to yer thoughts?"

"That's why it brought us all over the place!" Huey said.

"And that's how we found you! Uncle Scrooge just wished for it!" Dewey said.

"Which reminds me," Huey said, "How far are we going to walk before use the invention to head back to Duckburg?"

"As soon as we're safely out of sight o' the town," Uncle Scrooge said, replacing his hat with the coon cap and folding his top hat under his arm. "Now remember, you all have ta hold on tight and let me do the thinking! Otherwise, we'll end up getting lost on the way back."

Uncle Scrooge came to a halt, and so naturally we stopped too. Turning around, he gave one last look at the town behind us before turning to look forward.

"This is far enough, boys." He said, "Grab on!"

Huey held onto his left arm, while Dewey and I grabbed his right. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them we were standing in the living room of the mansion.

I almost couldn't believe it. We were back!

"Uncle Scrooge, I have a question." Huey began, "Didn't you just find that nugget in the snow? Why'd you trade it so easily for that hat?" Huey asked.

"Good question, lad. That's because I would have found the nugget sooner or later." Uncle Scrooge chuckled, "And I've always liked this hat."

"I thought for sure you would get into a fight with that guy." Dewey said, "He seemed pretty tough."

Wait.

Hang on a second.

"You don't know?" I asked, astonished.

"Know what?" Huey asked.

"That was 1899." I said matter-of-factly.

"Aye, that it was." Uncle Scrooge nodded. "A good year, too."

"What are you talking about?" Dewey asked.

"That was a real Saloon." I said, "The potato took us back in time to 1899."

"Huh?" Huey and Dewey both said at once.

"And that?" I pointed at the coonskin cap Uncle Scrooge was wearing, "That's his. He just bought it from himself."

After I said that, it was really fun to watch the expressions on my brothers' faces. Uncle Scrooge missed it, though. He was too busy enjoying his old coonskin cap.


End file.
